Willow flopped on her bed, exhausted. As usual, it had been a crazy day in her household. < If I'd known how tiring this would be, I would have never had a baby, > she thought to herself jokingly.
Then, as if on cue, she heard faint cries through the baby monitor. "Hold on a minute, sweetie, mommy's coming," she called. She threw on her favorite slippers, and quietly walked over to her daughter's nursery. Her husband was working downstairs, so he hadn't heard the baby crying.
She slowly crept into the nursery and was greeted by one of her favorite sights -- her nine-month old daughter sitting up in bed waiting for a hug. As Willow bent over to pick her up, little Alexandra reached for her mommy. What little hair Alex had was dark red, just like her mother's, and she sported her father's greenish-blue eyes. Willow smiled as she picked up her daughter and kissed her nose. "Hi, sweetie, ready for bed?"
Willow walked over to the dresser and opened the top drawer. She pulled out her favorite sleeper, one that her best friend Buffy had given as a shower gift. It was a light shade of purple and had a drawing of Eeyore on it. Alex loved it. She went to change her daughter's diaper, and once she was done, put on her pajamas.
"Okay, kiddo, you're all ready for bedtime." Willow could already tell, however, that Alex was in no mood to go to sleep. She picked up a book to read. Goodnight, Moon, had been one of her favorites as a child. She set the book in her lap and began reading out loud.
Once she finished the book, she noticed that Alex was still wide awake and sighed. "Alex, honey, you are a night owl just like your father. Well, let's hope that you inherited his love of music, too." She sat her daughter down in her crib, at which point the little girl started wailing.
Ignoring Alex's crying for a moment, she walked over to the small CD player on the nightstand, and placed a CD in. She immediately skipped to the eleventh song on the disc, and turned down the volume a bit so she wouldn't disturb her husband downstairs. The music of Billy Joel soon came wafting through the room.
"Goodnight, my angel, time to close your eyes......"
Willow walked back over to the crib, picked Alex up, sat down in the rocking chair, and slowly started rocking her to sleep. Willow's thoughts slowly drifted off to a fateful day over a year and a half ago..........
******
She had woken up that morning feeling absolutely awful, and spent the first half hour of the day throwing up. Oz brought up a glass of juice and some toast. "Willow, honey, are you okay?" he asked with a concerned look on his face.
"Actually, no, not really. I'm not going to go in to the office today. This is the third day in a row that I've felt this bad, and I have a doctor's appointment this afternoon anyway, so I'll just rest up. Don't worry, I'll be fine, it's probably just a flu bug or something."
Later that afternoon....
"Congratulations, Mrs. Green, you're five weeks pregnant."
Willow's jaw dropped to the floor. "Are you sure about that?"
"The test results are 99 percent accurate, so I'm pretty positive. I take it this is something of a surprise?"
"You could say that again. I'm completely speechless. What do I do next?"
"Well, I think telling your husband is the most logical next step, but as far as your health goes, just keep eating properly and make another appointment with me in five weeks or so. Okay?"
Willow nodded and made the appointment on her way out of the office. When she reached her car, she sat for a moment to think. < A baby, oh my god, am I really ready for this? Are WE really ready for this? We haven't even talked about starting a family yet, much less the werewolf question...oh no, the werewolf question! Okay, girl, get a grip, Giles will be able to help you. > Willow the started the car and drove to Giles' bookstore.
"Willow, what a pleasant surprise!" Giles smiled warmly as he saw one of his favorite former pupils enter the store. "What can I help you with?"
"Giles, I need to know everything you know about the lycanthropy curse. How it gets passed on, is it genetic, is there any way to get rid of it? I need to know soon!"
Giles was thoroughly confused to see Willow so agitated. "Why so soon, unless..... you're pregnant, aren't you?" Willow slowly nodded. He enveloped her in a comforting hug. "Not to worry, Willow, we'll get this figured out. Sit down, and I'll have Elizabeth look it up on the computer."
Two hours later....
"Well, Willow, here's everything we could find. Since lycanthropy is a curse, it cannot be passed on genetically, just through skin contact, bites and such, like what happened to Oz. As far as I can tell, there is no cure, per se, except to keep the werewolf under control during the full moon phase. So, the baby should be fine, just keep her away from her father during those three nights. Do you feel a little better?"
"Yes, Giles, thank you so much. I should get going, have to figure out a way to break the news to my husband that he's going to be a father."
Willow had just finished setting the table when Oz returned home. Noticing that his wife had used her favorite china, a wedding present from their friend Angel, he knew immediately that something was up. "Hi, sweetheart," he said, giving Willow a peck on the cheek. "What's the occasion for the favorite china?"
"It's a surprise, I'll tell you after dinner. Go on, hurry up and change, the food's getting cold."
After Oz had finished clearing away all of the dishes, he sat down at the table and gave his wife a quizzical look. "Okay, dinner's over, so what's the big surprise?"
"Well," Willow started, "that flu bug I thought I had wasn't the flu after all. It was morning sickness." Comprehension slowly began to register on Oz's face. "We're going to be parents. I know that this is kind of surprising, it was a shock to me, too, and I know that we really hadn't talked about this yet, but..." Oz interrupted her nervous babble with a comforting kiss.
"I'm gonna be a dad," he said dreamily.
"So, you're okay with this,..."
"Okay! I'm more than okay with this. This is great news! Oh, wait a second, what about the whole werewolf thing?" Oz just realized what kind of implications the situation had.
"I spoke to Giles about it this afternoon. He said we should be fine as long as neither you nor Jordy bites the baby." Willow smiled thinking about Oz's rambunctious young cousin. She then noticed tears running down Oz's face.
"We're going to have a baby. Willow, you have yet again made me the happiest man in the world...."
*******
A few minutes later, Oz came upstairs, and upon hearing the music, snuck over to the nursery where he found his wife and daughter sound asleep. , Oz thought to himself. , he thought, and smiled to himself remembering the first time he had seen that smile. Willow had charmed the socks off him right then and there, and he knew there would be no going back. The last year and a half had been the happiest of his life so far, even when things had gotten a little rough......
*****
For weeks after finding out they were going to be parents, Willow and Oz spent their weekends shopping for baby furniture, setting up the nursery, and picking out baby names. Buffy, Xander and Cordelia all pitched in, and Buffy and Cordy threw Willow a terrific baby shower.
The last month of Willow's pregnancy had been slightly difficult. She'd had three false alarms in two weeks, so it didn't surprise Oz in the least that it took her water breaking to convince Willow that she was really in labor.
"Willow, honey, since you're now absolutely certain that this is the real deal, can we please go to the hospital? I'd rather not have to help deliver the baby on the floor of our living room." Oz was a teeny bit exasperated at his stubborn wife.
"Okay, let me just page Buffy and my parents, and then we'll go."
Buffy's pager started buzzing just as she was finishing an early-morning workout. It took her a minute to realize that the unfamiliar numbers were Willow's code for "meet me at the hospital". After making a quick call to Xander and Cordy, she took off.
The three arrived at the hospital at about the same time. They were greeted by a very tired-looking Oz.
"Okay, before anybody asks any questions, Willow's been in labor for almost six hours, but being Willow, she was too stubborn to come to the hospital until an hour ago. She's doing fine, and I'll tell her you all are here. Anything else anybody needs to know?"
"Can we get you anything?" the three asked in unison.
Oz laughed slightly. "Actually, I'd like a cup of coffee and a jelly donut, if you don't mind."
"Coffee and donuts for everybody, then." Xander said with a smile. "Cordy, care to join me in a quick run to Krispy Kreme?"
"No problem. I mean, I love Willow, but I really hate hospitals. Let's go."
Nine o'clock that evening......
Oz was pulled aside by Willow's doctor. "Mr. Green, I need to talk to you for a minute," she said gravely. "Your wife has been in labor for over eighteen hours. Normally, long labors are not all that uncommon for a first pregnancy, but Willow's situation is not progressing as quickly as we'd like it to. We'd like to deliver the baby by C-section before we run into any problems, but we'll need your permission. Before you sign the form, you should know that this is a fairly simple, routine procedure and we're doing it as a precautionary measure only."
"Okay, let's do it, then. Can I be the one to tell her?"
"Sure, and we'll let you know as soon as she's out of surgery."
"Willow, honey," he whispered in her ear.
"Oz?" She turned around, and Oz could tell the labor had been tough on her. < She looks so tired, > he thought. < Well, this will all be over soon. >
"Honey, the doctors think that your labor isn't progressing quite fast enough. You're tired, and they want to deliver the baby by C-section. It's a pretty simple thing, they should have you in and out in an hour, and I promise to be there when you wake up, okay?" He tried hard to disguise the nagging worry in his voice.
"Okay," she said, tiredly. "I love you."
Oz kissed her forehead. "I love you, too, baby."
Buffy had never seen Oz so stressed out. Willow had been taken in to surgery over an hour ago, and still no word from the doctor. Oz had been pacing the floor the entire time. Suddenly, Dr. Carlisle came through the double doors and talked to Oz softly for a few minutes. After she left, he slumped into a nearby chair.
"So, Oz, what's the latest?"
"Well, the good news is that we have a healthy baby girl."
"Wait, there's bad news?" Xander asked anxiously.
"The bad news is that Willow's blood pressure dropped severely after they delivered the baby, and she started hemorrhaging. She lost a lot of blood, and is now in what the doctors are calling a 'light coma'." The last words were said dripping with sarcasm.
"Meaning...."
"Meaning that they're fairly certain she'll wake up, but they have no idea when. I can't even see her, she's still in the recovery room." Oz buried his head in his hands.
"Oz," Cordelia said softly, "why don't we go to the nursery and see the baby. You haven't even met your daughter yet. I'm sure she'd love to see her daddy." The others nodded in agreement. Xander squeezed his girlfriend's hand to express his gratitude for calming the situation.
"There she is, in the second row over to the left." Oz and Willow's new baby was sleeping quietly. < She looks so peaceful, > Oz thought. < What am I going to do if Willow doesn't wake up? >
Buffy gently squeezed Oz's hand. "Don't worry, everything's going to be fine. She's so cute, it looks like she's going to have red hair just like Willow's."
"Did you guys ever settle on a name? We can't just call her 'the baby' forever, you know." Xander asked.
Oz smiled softly. "Well, since we did promise to name our firstborn after you, Xander, it looks like you can call her Alexandra. As for a middle name, well, I'll have to get back to you on that one."
"Mr. Green?" Oz turned around to see a nurse looking at him. "Your wife's out of recovery now, you can go in and see her."
Oz was disheartened to walk in and see Willow still unconscious. She had two needles poking into her left arm, so he went and sat in the chair on her right side.
He quietly kissed her hand and began talking to her softly.
"Will, we did it. We have a beautiful little baby girl. She has bright red hair, just like yours, and my green eyes. She's asleep right now, the others are keeping an eye on her. Willow, I need you to wake up, honey. I can't do this on my own. When we got married, we promised to do everything together. You can't back out on me now. I love you, and I need you here, Alexandra needs you too."
"Alexandra? Who's Alexandra?" Willow slowly opened her eyes. She looked around the room and was very confused. "What happened, where's the baby? Is the baby okay?" Willow tried to sit up and groaned in pain.
"Everything's fine, honey. We have a baby girl, she's gorgeous, just like her mother. There were a few complications, but she's doing just fine."
"I want to see her."
"I don't think that should be a problem." Dr. Carlisle stepped quietly into the room. "First, however, I need to check up on you. Mr. Green, why don't you go to the nursery and you can bring the baby back with you?"
Oz returned a few minutes later carefully cradling Alex in his arms, with Buffy, Cordelia, Giles, and Willow's parents close behind. Oz gently placed the baby in Willow's arms and kissed her forehead. "Alexandra, meet your mother."
Buffy reached into her bag and produced a camera. "This is definitely a Kodak moment."
Willow shook her head vigorously. "Oh, no Buffy, don't. I look terrible."
"Willow, I've never seen you look happier. This is definitely a picture moment." Xander commented.
"Say cheese, everybody!" Alex didn't even flinch when Buffy's flash went off.
*******
Oz broke out of his reverie when he remembered that he was going to put Alex to bed. He quietly tiptoed into the room and carefully picked up the sleeping baby. Willow shifted a little but didn't wake up. Oz placed Alex back in her crib and tucked her in with her favorite stuffed animal. He then turned and scooped his wife up out of the rocking chair and carried her back to their bedroom. He gently placed her under the covers, and kissed her cheek.
"Goodnight, my angel."
The End
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