A/N: I don't know if I'll continue this one, I need at least 5 reviews to get me to continue!!!

The Hand Rocked the Cradle
Chapter 1


Anya opened the door.

"Hello? What? We're busy. Oh-- Xander, come here. What is that?" she said.

He came up behind her and looked at the sad puppy-dog face he was being given by a girl with big blue eyes.

"That's a kid, let's go back to bed." He turned then realized what he had just said, then turned to face the girl. "A KID?!?"

"That's what you said."

He picked up the suitcase and led Gwen inside. There was a note, he picked it up and read it.

"'Dear Mister Xander Harris. We regret to inform you that yesterday afternoon your aunt, uncle, and cousin were killed in a deathly fire. This little one; Gwenivere Marie Maxwell was outside in the yard when the fire occurred, therefore, surviving. As you are her only living relative in the United States, we hope you will take good care of her. Thank you, Mister Horace Jones, Social Services.' Uh-oh. Anya, we're in trouble," said Xander, to his fiancee, who was playing with Gwen, until Gwen began to cry.

"I'm calling Social Services, or whatever, and telling them to take it back!"

"You can't! That's my cousin!"

"Oh. Well, Giles'll know what to do."

"True, let's go."

Gwen stopped crying.

"Xan'er? You won't let dem take me again will you? Dat man yewed at me da whowe way hewe," said Gwen, quietly.

"No, but I don't know what to do with you. I can't keep you, I don't know anything about kids, and we don't have enough money, do you understand?"

She nodded.

"I undewstand, I undewstad dat you don't wuv me," she sniffed and burst into tears.

"I do love you, I really do, that's why I'm going to see what I can do to keep you out of an orphanage, and in Sunnydale."

She nodded, and Xander and Anya got dressed, took Gwen, and headed toward Giles' house. Then they just walked in, and found Giles, who was just waking up.

"What the-- here a bit early, aren't you?" he asked them.


"Take it," said Anya.

"Take what?"

He looked at the small girl, hiding behind Xander, her black locks sticking close her head.

"Don't 'take it', just tell us what to do," said Xander.

"I honestly don't know, I'm not a mother, you'd have to ask one."

"Joyce," said Xander and Anya at the same time.

They turned and left, after thanking Giles for helping them out, even if he didn't do anything. They went over to the Summers' home, and knocked. A very tired- looking Buffy opened the door.

"We need help!!" shouted Anya.

"Okay, don't wig, just come in," said Buffy.

She let them in and went into the kitchen where Joyce was making breakfast.

"Morning Xander, Anya," said Joyce, cheerfully.

"Morning, Buffy's mom," said Xander.

"What do you guys need help with? Demons, vampires, prophecies, magic, weird stuff? Go to Giles," said Buffy.

"This is weird, but we were all ready over there, and he said that he wasn't a mother," said Anya.

Buffy looked up.

"Why would he say that? I'll bet that didn't help."

"Yes it did, so we came to see you Joyce," said Xander, setting Gwen on his lap.

"Oh," said Joyce and Buffy at the same time.

Xander explained. By the end, Joyce and Buffy had given her ice cream and candy, even if it was seven in the morning.

"We can't keep her, we can barely take care of ourselves, and each other, much less a little girl," said Xander.

Joyce nodded, she was becoming paler every day, more depressed every minute and weaker every second, Buffy was trying to keep her well, but it was useless, she couldn't. A new addition might be just what they needed to keep everyone on their toes, and bring some joy into the Summers household. Buffy and Joyce looked at each other and nodded, silently agreeing.

"We'll keep her. We need a new, non- dangerous challenge," said Joyce.

Buffy laughed. Dawn came stumbling into the kitchen, sleepily.

"Dawn, we've got a little girl!" said Buffy.

"A what?"

"A little girl," repeated Buffy.

"What's her name?" asked Dawn.

"Gwenivere Marie Maxwell," said Xander.

"Where did you get her?"

"She came with the morning paper," said Anya.

"Oh."

"Yeah."

The next few days were spent making room for Gwen. The three Summers wanted pink for the room, a flowery border, and lots of stuffed animals, but Gwen had other plans. She wanted a blue room, and a cloud border, with glow- in- the- dark stars on the ceiling, and maybe a few stuffed animals. By the end of the week, it looked as if she had been there since the day she was born. The doorbell rang, and Buffy opened the door, Gwen, hiding behind her. It was Riley.

"Hey Riley," said Buffy, inviting him in.

"What's that?" he asked, referring to the eye peering out from behind Buffy

"That's Gwenivere Marie, I love that name!"

Riley looked at Buffy.

"Buffy, what's going on?"

"We adopted her from Xander, because he couldn't take care of her. Isn't she adorable?"

He laughed, relived, and nodded.

"Cute, I never would have believed she's related to Xander."

"They're cousins, but he doesn't want her to hate him, so we're bringing her up as a Summers, it was Mom's idea, and Xander readily agreed to it. I think it's very mature of him to do this for Gwen. He's over here every day doing something for her."

"That's nice of him. I just stopped by to tell you I was back."

"Okay. Wanna eat dinner with us? It's almost ready."

"No thanks, I'm gonna go back to Iowa for Thanksgiving, I'm leaving tomorrow."

"Oh okay. Bye Riley."

He leaned in to kiss her, but he didn't have the chance.

"Buffy! Wet's go eat. I'm hungwy, and Spike says dat dere aw some scawy fings fow you tonight. I want you to be cawefuw. You need to eat so you stay stwong."

Gwen grabbed Buffy's hand and pulled her toward the kitchen. Buffy looked at Gwen, shocked. For a five year old, Gwen was as strong as Buffy. Maybe even stronger. Riley left, an Buffy sat down next to Gwen. Later that night, when Buffy was patrolling, she ran into Spike.

"Hey Spike," said Buffy.

"Hey. How's the little bugger workin' out for ya?" he asked.

"She's been the sweetest little Angel, tonight she acted really weird, as if she didn't want Riley near me. She clearly stated her dislike for him at dinner. She said he smelt of evil, except she pronounced her l's and r's as w's. She's so cute!"

Spike laughed.

"She is an adorable little thing, isn't she? I stopped by the other night and ran into her, not literally, she opened the door, very brave indeed. She opened up and said, 'You're a vampire. Your name is William, isn't it? You used to date Drusilla, didn't you? She's very, very, very bad you're not that bad, cuz of that chip in your head.' I asked who'd she been talking to, and she truthfully said, no one. Can you believe that?"

"I can believe anything after she dragged me, almost literally, tonight to dinner. She's as strong as me," she whispered, as if someone was listening.

Spike nodded.

"You might want to ask Mr. Library."

"Yeah, he's been very Watchery/ Fatherly/ Role modely lately. He's been teaching Gwen how to read. She loves it. Every now and then she'll call me or Dawn 'mommy', but then Mom tells her to call her 'mom' too, so we can be a family. She loves the idea, she told me last night when I came home that she's in love."

"With who?"

"That's what I asked. Then she blushed and wouldn't tell me. I even tried to tickle it out of her. She almost did, but then screamed 'Mommy, help me!' then Mom saved her from the tickler."

"Sounds like fun," he said sadly.

"Yeah. It is."

Spike left, and Buffy eventually got into a few skirmishes with a few vampires, but nothing big. The next day, was Gwen's first day of school, but Joyce had a doctor's appointment, so Buffy took her. Gwen held Buffy's hand as they walked up to the Elementary school. When they got to the door, Gwen held Buffy's hand tighter.

"I don't want to go," said Gwen.

"You have to, or you'll end up like Xander, without a job, and no money," said Buffy.

"Oh. Wew, den wiw you come wif me?"

"To your classroom, but then I have to go to work."

"Okay, Buffy. I don't want to be wike Xander, I want to be just wike you."

"At this rate you will be. How did you know so much about Spike when you first met him?"

"I wed dis book, it was a diary, I found it in da woods behind my owd house. I bwought it wif me, I'w give it back to Spike tonight, if he comes ovew. Okay?"

"Okay. Well, here we are."

Buffy opened the first grade classroom door, and Gwen refused to go in.

"I don't want to."

"C'mon Gwenny, you said you would."

Gwen sighed, and Buffy kneeled down to Gwen's eye level.

"I don't want to weave you, Buffy."
"Just try it out, it might be fun, even more fun than hanging out with Xander and reading with Giles."

"Okay. I'll twy it out."

"Good. Ready?"

Gwen took a deep breath and nodded.

"I wuv you, Buffy."

"I love you too, Gwenny."

Buffy hugged Gwen, and Gwen turned to walk into her classroom, but stopped.

"I'm newvus, I can't."

Buffy took a box out of her pocket.

"I thought you might need some prompting, so here."

Gwen took the box, and opened it. It was a locket, she opened it, on one side it was a picture of Joyce, and the other was a picture of Dawn, Buffy, and Gwen, asleep, watching a movie.

"I wuv it! Fank you Buffy!"

Gwen hugged her. Buffy smiled and put the necklace on Gwen.

"You're welcome, now that's your promise to me, that you'll go in there, and be brave and show everyone that you're really smart. Okay?"

Gwen nodded.

"Okay."

Gwen turned and walked into the classroom, and waved goodbye to Buffy. Buffy got out her camera and took a picture of Gwen walking into the classroom. The teacher stepped out to talk to Buffy.
"Miss Summers?"

Buffy looked up.

"Mrs. Miller?"

"Yes. Is this you little girl?"

"No. No, we adopted her, she's Xander Harris' little cousin. He couldn't take care of her, financial problems, and so we adopted her, he'll be here this afternoon to pick her up. Is that okay?"

"Yes, I was wondering, how old is she?"

"Five. Why?"

"I'm not sure if she should be in first grade."

"She's smart enough. I swear, she could be in High School, she's so smart. Mister Giles has been teaching her, she loves him."

"Oh, well, I'll see how she does in class."

"Oh, and just so you know, she's really shy, and kinda aloofy"

"Kind of what?"

"Aloofy, as in slightly aloof."

"Oh, thank you Miss Summers."

Mrs. Miller went back into the classroom and Buffy left the school, and headed straight to Giles' house. She walked in, and he looked up from his desk.

"Hello, Buffy. What brings you here?"

"It's Gwen."

He stood up, worried.

"Is she all right?"

"She's fine, but she's giving me the major wig factor. I mean- she's as strong as me, almost as smart as Willow, and her memory is as good as yours, ands she's five."

"Umm, well is there anything else?" he cleaned his glasses.

"Oh yeah, and she smells good or evil. She 'smelt evil' on Riley last night. Or, at least, that's what she said."

"Oh, well, here let me see." He looked through his books for a while, then found something. "Buffy, come here."

She walked over to him.

"What is it, Giles?"

"I think she's a Mini- Slayer."

"A what?"

"A Mini- Slayer. She's a mix of the Slayer and the Slayers friends, or in our case--"

"The Scoobies."

"Precisely. She's Xander's cousin, as strong as you, smart as Willow, retentive as me--"

"Powerful as Tara, knowing of good and evil like Spike, and smart alecy as Dawn."

"Exactly."

"I hope she's not anything like Anya."

Giles laughed.

"Yes, I do hope not."

"What does a Mini- Slayer do?"

"I- I- I don't know. This has been the first one ever known. They're are prophecies about them, but none have ever actually existed, that anyone has ever known of at least."

"Okay. Well, then, what do we do about it?"

"Nothing, there is nothing we can do, but teach her to be her own person, we can get everything out of her except the smarts, memory, and strength."

"Good, let's start with the smart alec stuff, right?"

"Yes, of course. How do you propose we do that?"

"She listens to everything I say, if I tell her not to do something, she won't do it. I'll tell her not to worry about good and evil, not to be a smart alec, and no magic, yet at least, until she can properly make up her mind about it, but I will have strict limitations on the magic used. How's that?"

"Sounds good to me. Has she used any magic that you know of?"

"When Riley came to the door, the lights went blinky, but that was it."

"They did what?"

"They went blinky, you know, on and off then back on."

"Ah. Thank you for elaborating."

"You're welcome."

Buffy and Giles talked a while longer, then Buffy left, to pick her mother up from the doctors.