FIC: Militat Omnis Amans (Every Lover is a Warrior) Part 12c/?

["Beckett, Kevin" <kevin.beckett@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Militat Omnis Amans (Every Lover is a Warrior) Part 12c/?
K. Beckett (c) 2000, with the exception of musical lyrics which are
(c) the individual artists / labels.

Disclaimers:
Buffy, Willow and all of the other characters and places from the 
show are (c) to Joss Whedon, WB and Mutant Enemy etal. and are used
without their knowledge.

Continued from 12b....

Aiofe and Bridie then quickly grabbed warm towels and wrapped the 
babies, as Amana tied and cut the umbilical cords. 

Both Willow and Buffy looked down at the life that they had 
produced. They saw perfect, beautiful babies. From the full 
head of flaming red hair, to the tips of their little pink toes, 
both girls were flawlessly formed. The babies, after their 
initial howls of protest over the indignity of being born, had 
settled in and were staring up at their mothers.

"Hello Kendra," said Willow softly, staring into her daughters 
deep blue eyes, while she lightly stroked her daughter's damp 
hair, "welcome to the world."

"Hello Faith," said Buffy, running her fingers along her 
daughter's arm, and having her finger grabbed in a tiny fist, 
"I'm your mommy."

After a few minutes, both babies were taken by Aiofe and Bridie 
to be cleaned up and wrapped in thick blankets, before being 
placed into a basinet. While that was going on Willow and Buffy 
were helped out of the pool by Amana, to sit on the side of it on 
thick towels, in order to deliver their placentas. 

Once that final task of the birthing process was completed, Buffy 
and Willow were carefully bathed and redressed in thick warm 
clothing, before being led back to the common room of the inn, on 
the way to their own room to get some much needed rest. As they 
entered the inn they received the hearty congratulations of 
everyone in the room. They took a few moments to present their 
daughters to the assembled members of Willow's strike force, and 
the townspeople who happened to be in the inn.

-------------------------------
Later that evening, after she had settled the new mothers and 
their newborns, Amana made her way done to the kitchen, to 
scrounge herself a late supper. She wasn't all that surprised to 
see Grael sitting in the common room, with a mug of warm cider 
waiting for her.

"Well they're healthy," she said as she sat down across from 
Grael, "and they are sleeping, all four of them."

"What about Aiofe and Bridie?"

"They've pulled a cot into the room so that they won't disturb 
Buffy and Willow. They are asleep also. Along with one very 
self satisfied cat."

"Any problems."

"None at all, worry wart. It was a flawless delivery, both 
babies are healthy, and a good size, nearly four kilos."

"That's good news," said Grael, getting up from the table and 
heading over to the bar in order to refill their mugs, "now 
what?"

"Now I eat, and grab a nap before heading back up in a couple of 
hours. The babies will be awake, and hungry."

"It's going to be a busy few days," said Grael, sitting back down 
at the table and passing over Amana's mug.

"You're not kidding. By the way, how did the afternoon session 
with Hugh go?"
"Pretty good actually. He started to open up a little bit."

"But," asked Amana.

"I'm just thinking. What do we do once we have what we need?"

"We escort him, blindfolded, to the southern pass and release 
him."

"Is that just? I mean, he is a demon, he was spying on us, and 
he did arrange for the attack on Buffy and Willow."

Amana got up from the table and began to pace before one of the 
fireplaces. She stared into the fire and said, "we can't just 
kill him. I'd have cheerfully slit his throat back in the 
Capital, or if we were in combat, but if we just cold-bloodily 
kill him now we are no better than he is."

"Might be difficult," said Grael, "Buffy is still out for blood."

"We will make her see reason. Now I'm for a quick nap, care to 
join me?"

The two senior mages turned down the lamps in the common room and 
made their way up the stairs to their room. Fortunately it was 
not that far from Buffy and Willow's room, so that Amana would be 
able to reach the new mothers quickly if the need arose.

-------------------------------
Early the next morning, five or more hours before dawn, both new 
mothers were awakened by the pleas of hunger from their 
daughters. Rubbing the sleep from their eyes, Buffy and Willow 
slowly got out of bed, before turning back to pick up their 
babies, who had been sleeping between them.

"There, there, love," said Willow, "everything is ok."

"It's ok Faith," said Buffy, "mommy is here. What's wrong?"

"They are hungry, and need to be changed," said Amana as she 
entered the room, with fresh linen, "now lets get them changed 
and then on the breast."

Twenty minutes later, there were two clean babies, one of whom 
was contentedly feeding while the other was still fussing and 
crying.

"I'm a total doofus," said Willow, "why can't I get her to take 
the breast?"

"You will," reassured Amana, "it just sometimes takes a little 
time, that's all."

"Then why was wonder mother over there able to figure it out so 
soon," said Willow, petulance, and exhaustion, in her voice, 
"I'll never get this to work."

-Relax love,- said Buffy, -you are so tense, is it any wonder you 
are having problems.-

-I know. But it's so frustrating. This is something that is 
totally natural, so why can't I do it?-

-With Amana's help, you will work it out. But meantime, I have a 
suggestion.-

-Yes?-

-Let me feed Kendra, at least a little bit. She will calm down 
with some food, and then you can relax and try again.-

Willow thought the idea over for a few moments, with Buffy fully 
aware of her internal debate. Finally, common sense, and her 
desire to do what was best for her baby won out and she agreed, 
-ok. It makes sense.-

Willow then turned to Amana, who with the lack of sleep was 
beginning to nod off, and said, "Amana, Buffy asked, and I 
agreed, to feed Kendra."

Amana thanked the Goddess. If Willow's inability to breastfeed 
had gone on much longer, she would have been forced to suggest 
this action. Amana had resisted to that point, fearing Willow's 
reaction. "That is an excellent suggestion," she said, "and I 
have another."

"Anything," said Willow, "I'll try anything."

"While Buffy feeds Kendra, and you hold Faith, I'm going to run 
downstairs and grab you a glass of brandy. The alcohol will help 
relax you."

An hour later things had settled down. Willow was sitting in a 
large armchair before the fire, having finally been able to get 
Kendra to latch on, no longer feeling like a failure, happily 
watching her daughter eat. Buffy and Faith had fallen back 
asleep and Amana was nodding off in another chair beside Willow. 
Meanwhile Aiofe and Bridie arranged an early breakfast for 
everyone on one of the dressers.

"There, that should keep until later, when we get up," said Aiofe 
as she covered up a dish of sliced fruit.

"Aiofe love," said Willow, "would you be a dear and bring me 
something. I have a bottomless pit for a stomach."

"How are you doing," asked Aiofe, bringing over a plate of fruit 
and cheese.

"Wonderful. I've never been happier."

"What do you mean," asked Bridie, as she curled up at the foot of 
Willow's chair, leaning back on the arch-mage's legs.

"It's just now that I feel my life is complete. With Buffy and 
now with our children, everything seems to be finally falling 
into place." That statement led Willow to once again think, 
"that means something, somehow it's important, but I just don't 
know how or what yet."

"Well, we'll find out soon enough I guess," said Bridie, "the 
wait is tough though."

Faith finished feeding, detached from the breast and looked up at 
her mother with a little 'plop' as the suction broke. Willow 
stared down, and said softly, "Hi. I'm your mommy, and I am 
going to always be here for you. I'll keep you from harm, safe 
from the monsters under the bed and the demons in the dark." 
Willow was speaking not only of the metaphorical monsters of 
childhood, but also of the monsters she knew were real. Her 
daughter rewarded her mother's devotion with a burp, and a small 
amount of drool.

"How cute," said Aiofe, stifling a giggle.

"Talk about no respect," said Willow, cleaning her daughter 
before placing her over her shoulder for a proper burp, "here I 
am, professing my unending commitment, and all I get is drool for 
my efforts."

"Well," said Bridie, getting up from the floor, "Kendra has 
continued her respect for her mother by falling asleep, so I 
think that it is time for the two of you to get back to bed."

"But, it's nearly morning," said Willow, smothering a yawn, "I've 
got to get the day going."

"No you don't love," replied Aiofe, relieving Willow of her 
daughter, "what you have to do is get some sleep."

"Yes boss," said Willow climbing into bed. "Are you going to 
tuck me in too?"

"Only if you promise to be good," said Aiofe, placing Kendra 
between her parents.

"I promise," answered the arch-mage as she drifted off to sleep, 
joining her lover and their children.

"That's that," said Bridie, "now why don't you and I see about 
getting ourselves cleaned up, and fed?"

"That sounds good to me."

-------------------------------
The next few days followed a predictable pattern. Buffy and 
Willow were allowed, almost ordered, to keep their activities to 
a minimum, spending their time learning to care for their 
daughters, resting and bathing. Aiofe and Bridie spent their 
time helping the new mothers, and keeping them from trying to do 
too much, too soon. Within the week, both Buffy and Willow had 
managed to regain most of their energy, and their daughters were 
sleeping for nearly four hours between feedings.

Willow was still having occasional problems with getting Kendra 
to take the breast, therefore Buffy continued to provide her 
assistance. However, by the end of the week, both Willow and her 
daughter had become sufficiently adept at the feeding ritual that 
they were having very few problems.

"I think that I'm finally beginning to catch up on my sleep," 
said Buffy stretching her arms above her head as she sat up in 
bed.

"You never needed much sleep," commented Willow, as she burrowed 
deeper under the comforters snuggling up to two warm bundles, "I, 
on the other hand, need my sleep."

"No you don't sleepyhead. It's time to get up and face the 
living. Time to get back to work."

"Don't want to."

"Yes you do," said Buffy, as she began the process of stripping 
the bed, having first transferred her daughters to their crib, 
"besides, both Amana and Grael said that they would fill us in on 
Grael's interrogation of Hugh."

"That's right," said Willow, reluctantly getting out of bed, "how 
about I race you to the baths?"

Both women headed for the baths, passing Aiofe on the way. 
Willow turned to the other woman and said, "Aiofe, my lover and I 
are off to the baths. Could you keep an eye on our two sleeping 
beauties until we get back?"

"No problemo."

An hour or so later, Buffy and Willow, along with their daughters 
who were asleep in carry slings, were back downstairs having 
breakfast, for the first time in a week, in the inn's common 
room. They spent a good portion of their time catching up on 
things, while showing off their children like the proud parents 
they were. Everyone, once they had had a chance to meet with the 
new mothers, and to provide their congratulations, gradually left 
the room, heading off to get their various activities for the day 
underway.

As if it had been planned, Amana and Grael ended up at the table 
just as the last of the well-wishers left.
"Hi Grael," said Buffy, "what's up?"

"This and that," replied the mage as he took a seat at the table, 
"you two are looking better today." Grael had, as a matter of 
courtesy, been by to see both young women and their children 
several times since the birth.

"Thanks," said Willow, "we are. Now Amana said that you have 
finished with Hugh."

"That's right."

"And," asked Buffy.

"Where to begin," said Grael.

"Well, as my mother is fond of saying," said Willow, "at the 
beginning, and finish at the end."

"Okay then," said Grael, "I've continued my discussions with Hugh 
over the last week and I think that I've been able to wring him 
dry. I was able to learn a few things of interest, particularly 
on slayers and on the transport between worlds."

"Such as," asked Willow, her interest immediately peaked.

Grael then began to debrief Willow and Buffy. He indicated that 
once he had begun to talk Hugh had been very informative and 
forthcoming. He had indicated that he was over two hundred years 
old, and had originated on a world far removed from this one. He 
had been summoned to this world, ten years ago, once the demon 
leadership here had put the final touches on their plan for world 
domination. He had gone on to reveal that while to outsiders 
demons appeared unorganised and antagonistic towards each other, 
in reality they were all part of a network of clans who worked 
together at a high level to subjugate new worlds. When asked why 
this was so, Hugh had indicated that the original worlds from 
which the various demons originated were desolated shells, devoid 
of all forms of energy, yet still home to millions of 
inhabitants. They used the hell-mouths as portals from one world 
to the next, and as a means of draining the energy from a target 
world, to support the demon's home worlds.

Willow had sat pensively during the debrief, mulling over what 
Grael was sayings, and trying to draw conclusions in her mind 
between everything. She was attempting to make correlations 
between what she had already discovered, or deduced, and this new 
information. After a few minutes she turned to Buffy and asked, 
"thoughts love?"

"Only one; and that is why they were so determined to find me."

"Grael," asked Willow.

The mage then continued recounting the information that had been 
given to him by the demon. He said that Hugh was not that 
knowledgeable about slayers, and why precisely they had been 
hunting for her, but that the demon leaders had given specific 
instructions to find the slayer, and kill her. He was also aware 
that the demons considered slayers to be the primary threat to 
their existence, and that they took steps to eradicate them as 
soon as they could on any new world, even though that could take 
several generations and thousands of lives to accomplish. He 
also knew that they started the process of slayer removal on a 
world centuries before the leadership had plans to attack it.

"That means whatever they are doing, they are doing already back 
home," said Buffy.

"If only we knew what it was they did," said Willow, "once we 
return we could figure out a way to stop it."

"That will be a problem for later," said Buffy, turning back to 
Grael, "did the scumbag have anything else to say?"

"Nothing of any real substance."

"Good," said Buffy getting up from the table, "demon disposal 
time."

"That won't be possible," said Amana softy.

"What do you mean," asked Willow.

"We let him go," replied Grael, "we blindfolded him, and two days 
ago Sonya and Daithi led him through the southern passes."

"Why," said Buffy the anger dripping from her voice, and her body 
tensing with suppressed rage, "after all that he was responsible 
for."

"To do otherwise," said Amana, "would be to bring us down to his 
level. This way, he's on his own, without resources, to cope as 
best he can."

Neither Buffy or Willow were fully convinced by the older mages 
arguments, however, they didn't want to push the issue just then.

"However," said Amana, breaking into the tension that had arisen 
between herself and Buffy, "on a brighter note, we do have one 
thing to plan."

"And that would be," said Buffy, standing up from the table and 
beginning to pace in front of the fireplace.

"Your daughters' naming."

Willow and Buffy had in fact thought this one over and had 
already come to a conclusion on this matter. Willow said, "we've 
thought this over, and we'll do it at the solstice in two weeks."

"Excellent idea," said Grael, "have you finished working out the 
details, since I'm assuming you will lead?"

"Nearly. Just a few things left to work out."

The next two weeks flew by for the new mothers. It was as if the 
hours in a day evaporated before their eyes. Some days they had 
so much to do with their daughters, it was all they could do to 
make time to have a bath, let alone get anything else 
accomplished. Buffy was still not happy with Amana and Grael's 
decision to let the demon Hugh go free, her body language 
screamed its rage every time she talked about it to the senior 
mages. However, she realized that there was nothing she could do 
about it, and resolved to live with the situation, since she was 
far to wrapped up in helping to care for a couple of very 
demanding little girls.

At one point Buffy turned to her spouse and said, "how do single 
moms do it? I mean we have each other, Aiofe, Bridie and Amana 
and there still isn't enough hours in the day."

"I know," said Willow, "Amana keeps saying that it's going to get 
better, once the two of them start to sleep longer; but right now 
I'm having difficulty believing her."

Soon it was solstice day, the day with the shortest amount of 
light, the time to celebrate light, and the steady return of 
longer hours of sunshine until the earth brought forth her bounty 
in the spring. In keeping with the day it dawned bright, wind 
free, cloudless and bitterly cold. 

It would be a long day, and even longer night, for the solstice 
ritual would last from sunset to sunrise. It would be followed 
by twelve days of gift giving and celebrations as the community 
once again welcomed the birth of the infant sun, the eventual 
triumph of spring over summer and as an excuse to have fun in the 
bleakest time of the year. 

Willow and the others all took it easy during the day, with 
everyone getting at least a few hours of sleep in the afternoon. 
With a half hour to go before sunset, everyone in the village 
assembled in the common room of the inn. 

Continued in 12d