Chapter 3: Oh Baby!

Warning: This chapter is not Xander or Giles-friendly, but not bashing either in my opinion. I will say that this story will be kinder overall to Xander (and Willow) than it will be to Giles.

Timeline: season 6, during 'Tabula Rasa'.

A/N: This is the last chapter before we find out who 'he' is. The votes have been tallied and I know who he is. A bit of warning…there's some fairly significant changes in canon to both fandoms to accommodate the new relationship between Buffy and her mystery guy.

Disclaimer: BtVS characters belong to Joss Whedon / Mutant Enemy. I claim no rights to any copyrighted material. Please do not copy or take this story without my permission.

Next morning…

Buffy lay in her bed, going over the events of the previous night again. Dawn was kidnapped…again; Xander summoned the demon who did the kidnapping…not again, but he really should stay away from anything that had to do with magick from now on. The strangest thing was the demon's final words to them…something about setting things right and liking the number 14. What the Hellmouth did that mean?

Everyone was too strung out emotionally do deal with the threat at the time. Willow and Tara said they were going over to Xander and Anya's for something and would just sleep over there. Personally, Buffy figured that it was just too awkward for them to be around her at the moment, knowing that they didn't save her from hell like they thought; they condemned her to it.

That was okay, she couldn't deal with their guilt at the moment, either. Giles was acting all weird on her and then there was always the joy that was her baby sister to worry about. Since when was Dawn in the habit of helping herself to jewelry that was sitting around the Magic Box? Hopefully Giles would help Buffy impress upon the teenage delinquent how bad her habit was. Buffy hoped it was limited to just the Magic Box or Social Services would take Dawn before she could even open her mouth to protest.

Just as she was thinking about getting out of bed – despite getting hardly any sleep – Buffy heard a cry coming from Dawn's room. She raced down the hall, wondering whether she should have stopped for a weapon on the way. When she got to the doorway, she froze. There wasn't a weapon that could help her with what she saw…at least she didn't think there was.

In the middle of the bed, a tiny baby lay, squalling at the top of its lungs. It was surrounded by the night clothes Dawn wore to bed just a few hours ago. Buffy already could tell that the baby was Dawn. There were enough pictures of them as babies – plus Buffy's fake memories of that time – to verify that concern.

"Dawn?" Buffy asked, picking up the baby and making sure to keep a blanket between her and her sister's butt. That much she remembered from her brief career as a babysitter.

"Bubby!" baby Dawn cried out. Well, the voice was infantile, but the look was pure teen Dawn.

"Dawn? Are you…still a teenager in your mind?" Buffy asked, feeling a little foolish to be asking such a question, but couldn't stop herself from doing it.

Her reluctance was unnecessary as the child in her arms nodded angrily. "Oh boy!" she breathed softly. "This is definitely something that needs Giles' help."

"Oou ink?" Dawn snarked. Weird – and more than a little creepy – for a baby to be able to snark. But her point was well taken; it was sort of a 'duh!' comment to make.

"Oh, Giles!" Buffy sing-songed as she made her way down the stairs. "Got an interesting puzzle for you to solve!"

Giles groaned after glancing at his watch and seeing the early hour. "Buffy, it is far too early for that tone!" he complained, still not seeing the bundle she was carrying. "What couldn't wait until a decent time?"

She turned Dawn so the de-aged girl was facing the grumpy Watcher and said, "Dawn needs some diapers…and other baby things. Oh, and we need to figure out how to change her back!" she finished emphatically.

"What the-?" Giles cut off abruptly as he stared at the sight of his Slayer holding an infant.

"Iles!" Dawn's voice snapped to get his attention.

"What the-?" he tried again, this time stunned by the glare Dawn was giving him. He didn't think babies could glare.

"I think we broke him," Buffy quipped. "Guess I should have told him that you still think like a teenager, even though you look and talk like a baby."

He finally shook himself out of his thunderstruck state. "Yes, that would have been most useful. I presume this just happened?"

The sisters looked at each other and sort of shrugged together. "Not exactly sure when it happened, but we just found out about it a few minutes ago," Buffy answered for both of them. "Seriously, though, she needs some baby stuff right away. We have some old baby clothes in a box Mom saved, but she needs things like diapers, wipes…you know."

Giles shook his head again. "Actually, I don't know. I believe it would be better if you went to the store for those items and I'll attempt to start researching this…event."

"That sound okay to you, Dawn?" Buffy asked. "Wanna stay with Giles or should I try to make a list for him instead?"

Dawn appeared to think about it for a second, then pointed at Buffy, who had moved her back into a more comfortable position for both of them. "Oou urry."

Nodding in agreement, Buffy carefully handed her sister over and said, "I'll be back as soon as I can. I'm taking Mom's Jeep so it'll be faster."

"You're leaving Dawn here with me?" Giles asked in horror.

Buffy huffed in exasperation. "Giles, it's November and she isn't dressed. Even if I put on an outfit for her, it would be a major hassle to try and shop with a baby – especially one without a diaper!"

Magic Box

That afternoon…

Tara was the first one to arrive and meet the new version of Dawn. "Uhh…Buffy? Did I miss something?" she inquired cautiously.

"Short story…Dawn's physically de-aged but still thinks like herself," Buffy answered abruptly. "Long story…I want to wait until everyone's here so I only have to talk about it once. Let's just say that I'm not a happy camper about this."

There was another reason she was unhappy, but that was Giles' news to share with the group. Apparently she was depending on him too much and he was leaving her to deal with life on her own – despite finding out where she really was and that her sister had been turned into a baby! Actually, having baby Dawn to care for was even more reason for him to leave her…in Giles logic.

"Me, oou!" Dawn agreed, much to Tara's shock.

"Okay," Tara murmured. "Guess this means I won't be playing peek-a-boo with you," she said to the younger, younger Summers girl.

Dawn just glared back. Despite the situation, the scene almost was enough to make Buffy smile. She was pretty impressed with her sis for being able to pull off that look with her baby features.

The other three pulled in a few minutes later, talking about something quietly to themselves. Buffy considered waiting for Spike but decided against it for two reasons. One, it only indirectly involved him and two, there was no guarantee he'd show up.

"Giles! It's time!" she called out to her Watcher.

He came out in time to hear Xander ask, "Where'd ya get the baby from, Buffy?"

"From you," Buffy replied a touch angrily. "At least indirectly."

Both Willow and Anya turned to glare at him, and he held up his hands in front of himself to shield them. "What? I don't know what she's talking about?"

Tara intervened, since it seemed she was the only one to hear the second part of Buffy's statement. "What do you mean 'indirectly'?"

"Remember when that demon last night said something about 'making things right'? Turns out he meant de-aging Dawn so she's the age of how long she's actually been in Sunnydale," Buffy finished with another glare in Xander's direction.

"How is that my fault?" he protested. "And how do you know this was something he did?"

"Uhh, 'cause you were the one who summoned him!" she snapped back. "And we figured it out because he specifically mentioned the number fourteen…which just happens to be how old Dawn originally was when the monks sent her here…fourteen months ago. We happened to see on an old calendar that Dawn celebrated her 1st birthday two months ago."

Giles understood his Slayer felt stressed, however, he did not feel it was right to take it out on her friends. "Now, Buffy, Xander couldn't have known-"

It was his turn to be on the receiving end of her glare this time as she cut him off, "It doesn't matter! How many people died because of that thing? Besides, given our histories, when has it ever been a good idea to summon a demon?!" Buffy practically screamed at him.

That caused Anya to pout a little. "Well, I was summoned and that didn't turn out so bad, did it?"

Buffy took a breath to calm herself, then replied a tad more evenly, "That's because you aren't a demon anymore. Since we met Willow's vampire self from the world you created, I'm guessing that it wasn't a great place to be. So if you hadn't become human, our lives – assuming we even had them – would be pretty sucky right now."

"It was a pretty bloodthirsty wish," Anya allowed, her eyes glazing over in the memory of one of her more impressive wishes. Thankfully, everyone else was focusing more on Dawn and Buffy than her or she might have had some explaining to do about why she wasn't exactly remorseful about it.

"Be that as it may, our focus should be on what we can do for Dawn, not trying to assign blame on anyone," Giles interjected.

"You mean us, don't you?" Buffy remarked bitterly. "Or are you planning to research this on the other side of the ocean? Oops…" she faux-apologized, "Did I accidentally let that slip?"

"What is she talking about, Giles?" Tara asked.

Before he could respond, a young man came into the shop and smiled at Buffy. "I'm glad I found you again," he said, walking over and reaching out to touch her cheek.

"Oi! Who's the swot?" Spike complained as he ventured out from the basement. He didn't much care for the swoony way the Slayer was acting towards the guy in the nice suit. She was supposed to be his, dammit!

And just like that, everyone collapsed where they were, thanks to the spell that Willow had cast earlier at the Summers home.

A/N: I know, I'm a terrible tease, aren't I? I have the winner of the vote and am just working on the chapter where he's introduced to the readers. But this chapter felt like it belonged on its own since it dealt mostly with the canon changes I made for BtVS. The next one will deal with the canon changes of the other fandom and the rest of 'Tabula Rasa' – which will have even more changes, too.