As much as I love babies, I could really do without the dirty diapers.  And the sleepless nights.  And the loud, seemingly uncontrollable crying.

You know, when you look at it I might not like them all that much but then I look at mine and it all goes away.

That’s right, I’m a mom now.  I have a little three month old son, Tyler.  The dad is nowhere near the picture but that’s okay with me right now.  It’s just me and little Ty.

Okay, me, Ty and the rest of the gang.  We still have the slayer operation going strong and in Cleveland.  We’ve been here since the battle with the First, almost five years now.  Sometimes it feels like it was just yesterday that everything happened but then so much has changed and we’ve fought several battles since then.  Thankfully, all of them were won with relative ease.

It’s this latest battle that has me a little worried.  Since we’ve been here, patrolling and training new slayers, there have been several tries to take over the hellmouth but none that had vampires and demons working together.  We think they’re led by someone as well but we haven’t been able to figure it out so Giles and Xander have been calling people to Cleveland to help.  That includes Faith.

While we parted on good terms we didn’t keep in touch at all.  I was a little surprised she chose to leave in the first place but I respected her decision, maybe a little of it envious, too.  She got to leave and live whatever life she wanted but I still needed to lead.  All I know about her since is that she’s been living it up in Miami.

I’m more than a little jealous about that, too.  She gets to live in sun and warmth year round and I have to deal with cold and snow part of the year.  Do you know how much I hate snow?  There’s been more than one night where I wished I could move the hellmouth south a few hundred miles.

“Buffy,” Willow says as she enters the kitchen area of our headquarters, “I think Faith’ll be here any minute.  It might look good if you’re with us to greet her.”

I pick up Tyler and hold him close to me as I turn to her.  “Why is it so important?  Did someone tell her I didn’t want her to come?  ‘Cause that’s far from true.”

“No one said that,” Willow tells me quickly, “but there’s all that history.”

I sigh.  The next time I hear someone say that word I’m going to hit them.  “She didn’t leave on bad terms, Will.  We each have our own lives . . . and that’s it.”

She nods, gives a little smile to Tyler and walks out.  I follow her and sure enough, once we reach the front doors a car pulls up.  Not just any car either: probably the most expensive red sports car I’ve ever seen.  It’s a little two-seater convertible and since it’s sunny the top is down and there’s Faith, at the driver’s seat with sunglasses on and a smile on her face.

Here’s one thing I should point out about what’s happened with Faith after Sunnydale.  She has money and by money, I mean more than she could possibly spend in one lifetime.  When Giles went looking for the old Council’s money so we could finance the new one he found several accounts in Faith’s name.  There were millions and millions and all we could think was that the Mayor had set them up.

It seemed everyone wanted to tell her what to do with all the money that was suddenly hers but Giles told everyone it was her decision.  Faith took a day to think before she said she knew what she would do and left.  I never knew what she did with her money or her life but I guess I can find out now.

Tyler squirms in my arms a little as we step outside and I kiss the top of his head as Faith gets out of the car.  She smiles at everyone until her eyes look at me.  At that point, they’re fixated on Tyler and aren’t looking away.

“Faith, thank you for coming,” Giles says but she doesn’t look away.

“Yeah,” she says and takes off her sunglasses, “what’s with the baby?”

Everyone turns to me and I can’t help but raise an eyebrow.  Who else but Faith would ask a question like that before anything else?  “This is my son, Tyler.  Want to say hi to Faith, Ty?”

I lift him up a little and he eyes her in pretty much the same way she’s doing to him.  I’m sure it could go on for awhile and thankfully Xander breaks it up.

“This is some car, Faith.”

That’s snaps her out of what I can only think is shock and she grins as she turns back to her car.  “Kind of a spurge from a few weeks ago and this was the perfect opportunity to really test it out.”  She laughs.  “Only got one speeding ticket on the way here.”

“I would’ve gotten a lot more,” Xander says as he runs a hand over the hood.  “Can I drive it?”

Before she can answer, Giles interrupts.  “We have much to go over so we should go inside and catch Faith up.”

Everyone murmurs agreement and begin to walk back inside but Faith hangs back with me for a moment.  She looks a little uncomfortable around Tyler though and I’m not sure how to take that.

“Who’s the kid’s dad, B?” she asks and I’m amazed that was the first thing she asked.  I would’ve thought she’d go for something more crude.

“Ex-boyfriend,” I answer quietly as I smile down at my son, “he left Cleveland a week before I found out.  Said he didn’t want anything serious and this is as serious as it gets really so I’m a single mom, I guess.”

She nods.  “There’s lots of single moms at the center I run.  I’m betting you’re a great mom.”

I smile at the comment but now I have many questions.  “Center?”

“Yeah, built a center, kind of a community center or something, where people hang out or get help.  It’s kinda cool and there’s some vamps and demons in the area I can stake so that’s a bonus.”

I laugh.  “Always need to stake a vamp every once and awhile.”

It’s a little funny that most women are hands on when there’s a baby around but Faith’s keeping her distance.  A part of me wants to point it out but we have work to do.  Maybe I’ll have time to make fun of her later so we only walk back into slayer headquarters.

“I bet you looked pretty hot pregnant,” is what I hear as we walk in.  The hell?

******

The slayer headquarters are large and most everyone lives here.  The only people who don’t and are still involved are Giles, Dawn and me.  Giles made it very clear when we set everything up that he didn’t want to live in a dormitory the rest of his life so he bought a house not too far away.  Dawn found out quickly after high school that she loves to travel so any work we have that requires it she practically runs to the plane.  She has her own apartment for when she’s in Cleveland.

I lived at the headquarters until I found out I was pregnant.  There was no way I was raising a kid in that madhouse so I talked to Giles and we found this nice little two bedroom house a couple miles away from headquarters.  It’s the perfect place for the two of us.

Xander and Willow are in charge of the day to day at our operation and there’s always slayers coming and going.  The place is never quiet since there’s never a shortage of slayers in their teens and early twenties and there’s always drama.  I definitely do not miss the drama.

Faith’s been here a week and I can tell she’s about to take someone’s head off.  We always have rooms available so it’s not like she’s had to share with someone but there’s a lot of cattiness and gossiping and it’s definitely getting to her.  She also has to share a bathroom with some of the girls.

Like I said: drama.

There were a couple changes made to headquarters once Tyler entered the picture.  He has his own area just off from the training area and another in the common area so he’s never far away from me while I’m working.  It’s not that I don’t trust the girls or anyone to help take him while I’m doing something but I like to know he’s close by.  I know I’m the one who can best protect him if needed.

I’m trying to get him settled for a nap in the common area when Faith walks in and collapses on a leather couch.

She looks up at me and I can tell she’s frustrated.  “I’m gonna kick someone’s ass and it’s gonna be one of those juniors.”

“What’d they do this time?” I ask quietly.  Tyler needs a nap but he immediately turns at the sound of Faith’s voice.  He’s been doing that since she arrived and it’s a little weird.  His eyes always go to her.

“Hours and hours in the bathroom,” she says as she lies back and closes her eyes.  “Fighting over makeup and hairdryers and accessories.  Fighting over weapons and who stakes what I can handle but this shit is insane.”

I laugh quietly and rest against the armrest as Tyler resists my attempts to get him to sleep.  “I remember those days.  Can’t say that I miss them.”

“All you had to do to get outta here was get knocked up, huh?”

“That’s one way to put it, I guess,” I say.  “I think you can manage here.”

“I dunno,” Faith says, “one of these girls is gonna get a kick sooner rather than later, ya know?  They need to grow the fuck up.”

I do my best to cover my son’s ears, finally getting enough of Faith’s colorful way of speaking.  “Thanks, Faith.  His first word’s gonna be a swear word now.”

She laughs.  “Sorry, not used to being around a tiny person.”

“You mean a baby?”  I can’t help but smirk.  Faith is always at an arm’s length when Tyler’s with me.  It’s almost like she’s afraid of him.

“Yeah, yeah.”  Faith sits up a little.  “I guess I should go back and train or something.  Hopefully, that’ll calm me down.”

She’s about to stand when I get an idea in my head.  It’s probably the worst idea I could probably have right now but it might solve some of the problems here.  At least, it might stop Faith from going after any of the young slayers when they get on her nerves.

“Why don’t you stay at my house?” I ask.

Faith looks at me, eyes wide, and I think she thinks I’m completely crazy.  “You want me to stay with you?”

“If it means you won’t go after one of the girls here for being their annoying selves then yes, you can stay with me.”  I pause.  “I don’t have an extra room or anything but I have a pullout couch that’s all yours if you want it.”

She looks away from me for a moment and closes her eyes.  “So I’ll be trading petty, prissy, annoying as hell slayers for one crying baby?”

“Tyler doesn’t cry all the time, do you, sweetie?”  I turn him more to her which is really what he’s been trying for anyway.  Seriously, he’s really weird about Faith.  “I bet he’ll be on his best behavior.”

“Really?”  I don’t think Faith believes me but I don’t really believe me either.  He may not be very old but I can already tell he’s going to be a troublemaker.  “Guess it does beat living here with everyone.  I’m not a fan of sharing my space.”

“Well, you’ll be sharing with me but that’s it,” I say as I try to rock my son back and forth.  “That’s gotta be better, right?”

Faith grins.  “We’ll see.  I’ll get my stuff together and we can drop them off at yours before patrol tonight.  Sound good?”

“It’s a plan.”  I smile but I’m already wondering what I’ve gotten myself into.