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In the next few hours, things began to steadily improve around Sunnydale. At a quarter past five in the morning, Stefanie Marks gave birth to a healthy baby girl. Half an hour later, she and Jenny and the infant were finally reached by the rescue squad and brought to safety. Willow Harris' fever broke shortly after seven in the morning, and her son was born roughly two hours later without the need of a C-section. Even Jared, whom Stefanie had presumed dead in the Bronze's massacre, turned up at the hospital as a result of a car accident two blocks from the club.
However, those were the only good things to come out of the night's events, for there was still a dark cloud hovering overhead that didn't appear as if it would go away anytime soon; anybody who should enter the apartment that used to be Buffy Summers' would quickly become aware of this fact.
As the day slowly passed by, neither Cordelia nor Giles dared say a word in front of Angel to disprove that Buffy might be coming home. And so, the elder vampire just spent most of the day watching the door of his apartment, as if expecting his wife to walk through it at any moment.
Towards sunset that night, a call came from Jenny, which Giles picked up; his wife informed him that Steffi, Willow, and Xander, and even she herself, were getting antsy waiting at the hospital for an update on what was happening. Giles told her as little as possible, swearing that he would be coming to tell the news in person.
Upon hanging up, Giles was prepared to tell Angel gently that they should go. However, his elder friend surprised him by getting in the first word.
Angel sagged in his seat, appearing at last on the verge of tears. "She's not coming back, is she?" he asked, half to himself. "I'm never... we're never going to see her again."
Giles, too, had been holding out hope. But, hearing Angel voice the obvious quickly banished it, for he knew deep inside that too much time had passed. If Buffy hadn't turned up by now, then the odds were that she never would at all. Swallowing the lump in his throat, Giles went to Angel's side, laying one hand on his friend's shoulder. "I'm sorry," he started to say.
Angel stood suddenly and turned, grabbing the wicker chair he'd been sitting on and throwing it at the wall with a howl. This continued for a few seconds, with him throwing the few things he could get his hands on, before he sank to the floor. "Buffy, no!" Angel half shouted, half moaned, his tears beginning to flow.
Cordelia hesitated a moment, then kneeled by Angel's side, providing him with a shoulder to cry on. Looking up at Giles, she silently conveyed the message that he should go to the hospital on his own.
Giles kept himself numb for the most part during the short drive, even though he knew that everyone else's reaction was bound to be the same, if not worse, as Angel's had been. Upon reaching the hospital, he quickly inquired as to which floor Stefanie and Willow were stationed on. And, much to his surprise, he was informed that the two girls had been assigned the same room.
Giles made his way up to the desired floor quickly, striding slowly down the hall. As he walked, he kept going over and over in his mind what he would say, but didn't come up with a simple solution. Then, he entered the room, and all thoughts of the tragedy flew briefly from his mind.
Both Stefanie and Willow were seated in wheelchairs, each of them holding an infant in their arms, while Xander and Jenny stood nearby wearing smiles, the latter holding Ivory by her side. There was such a large amount of joy in the small group that Giles couldn't help but be affected. Taking a step closer, he said, "And who would these two lovely newborns be?"
Four faces tilted up to look at Giles, and there was a slight pause for a moment. Then, Stefanie nodded to Willow to go first. Xander wheeled his wife forward slightly, and Willow introduced her son as Jesse Gregory Harris. "Isn't he darling?" she asked, presenting the baby for Giles to see.
"He certainly is... He's got his father's looks," Giles replied, gracing her and Xander with a pleasant smile. "Congratulations, Willow. You've done very well."
"Well, I had a lot of encouragement," Willow replied modestly, reaching for her husband's hand. To Xander, she added, "I couldn't have managed it without you there."
Xander gave her a slightly silly look. "I don't know... You looked kind of upset after that period in which I fainted, Will," he joked.
Willow laughed, then, noticing Giles' confused expression, she explained, "All I did was ask for something to relieve the pain, which incidentally required getting a shot. Xander took one look at the needle, and the next thing I knew, he was hitting the floor!"
Giles nodded in amusement, thinking it to be a typical reaction. After a moment, he walked to Stefanie's side, kneeling to get a closer look at her little girl. Stefanie beamed, then said, "I named her Risa Veronica Marks, after Rhys... If things had been different, maybe she would have been his. But this is my way of ensuring that his memory lives on regardless."
Giles smiled, reaching to touch Risa's small forehead. "May you grow up to be as brave and remarkable as your mother is," he whispered to the infant. "The world could use another person like her."
Stefanie smiled warmly, touched by the words. Holding Risa a little closer, she added, "So, are Buffy and Angel coming to visit soon? I can't wait for them to see her."
Giles involuntarily stiffened at her innocent words, the first indication that the group had that something was wrong. Xander was the first to voice the silent question, but Giles hesitated a moment longer. "First, you should put Risa and Jesse back in their cribs," he said, gesturing to the small, mobile plastic beds and watching as Willow and Steffi did just that. Then, with a heavy heart, he filled them in on Buffy's fate.
Their reactions were nothing less than Giles expected. First, there was the all-around period of numbness, the ashen faces. Then, everything seemed to happen at once.
Xander backed up slightly, falling into his chair and looking positively devastated. Willow just burst into sobs, futilely trying to make some intelligible words but failing since she was crying too hard. Jenny went to the redhead, holding her in the same way that Cordelia had Angel at the apartment. And, last but not least, Stefanie remained frozen for a few moments, then bowed her head, her hands going to her face as she began to cry more silently.
The grief period seemed to go on for hours before any one of them could truly accept the reality of it. Only then, at their darkest hour, it was Stefanie who suggested the most reasonable thing to do.
"I think we should hold a memorial service for her," Stefanie said, her tone lacking its usual vibrancy. "It's what Buffy would want, for us to remember her life and celebrate the years in which we knew her." She looked at Ivory briefly, feeling a twinge of sorrow knowing that the girl would now have to grow up without the mother who had loved her so much. "It's the best thing we could do for her and for ourselves," Stefanie added, hiding the fact that, inside, her heart felt like it was being torn to shreds...