DISCLAIMER: I own  no one; Joss owns everyone.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: I'm updating as often as I can, so sorry for the long wait.  Anyway, I hope some questions will be answered in this chapter.  I do have to say that I don't envision Angel coming from a very wealthy family, and I'm not sure what exactly gave that impression.  Doyle is already dead, as this picks up when Faith comes to LA in season one, several episodes after Doyle's death.

Oh, and don't worry, a definite road trip to Sunnydale in the future.  What kind of fluff would this be if there wasn't?  And yes, Kate and Lindsey will make appearances as well, most likely in the same chapter, but not quite yet.

THROWBACK: Chapter Three

            Cordelia looked up from polishing her nails.  She tilted her head to the side, and it occurred to her that something was wrong.  Carefully, she listened.  She heard nothing, and then it struck her that the silence probably wasn't a good sign.  In the two weeks since Wesley had botched the spell and turned Faith and Angel into children, there had never once been silence in the office.

            Sighing, Cordelia put down her nail polish.  "Okay, you little ankle biters," she said, standing up, "where are you and what are you doing wrong?"

            For a moment there was silence, then a loud series of thumping sounds, and then silence again. 

            "Don't make me come down there," she yelled toward the basement, knowing that she was already well on her way 'down there.'  Silently she cursed Wesley and his I-have-to-find-the-reversal-spell excuse for going out for the afternoon and leaving her at the mercy of Seek and Destroy, the two four year old wonders.

            As she rode the elevator down, she could hear frantic whispering and the clanging of metal.  When she stepped out of the elevator, Cordy was greeted by two innocent and smiling faces.

            "What are you two doing?" she asked, narrowing her eyes at them and holding her hand in front of her, hoping her nail polish would dry before some type of physical intervention was needed to stop the two children from killing each other or getting themselves killed.

            "Nothing," Faith and Liam replied sweetly at once. 

            "And I'm Christina Ricci," Cordelia said sarcastically.  The sarcasm was lost on the children.

            "Okay, Christina Ricci," Liam said, grinning up at her winningly.  "I'm Liam O'Connor."  He stuck his little hand out to shake hers. 

            Cordelia looked down at him and tried not to giggle at the little boy's confident stance.   Little Angel was such a ham.

            Cordelia turned her attention to the four-year-old Faith.  "What?" Cordy said, "No witty-slash-sarcastic remarks from you too?"

            Faith smiled at her and batted her eye lashes innocently.  Cordelia groaned.  If there was one thing Faith was not at any age, it was innocent.  "We're just playing nicely, Cordy," little Faith said.

            Cordy noticed that Faith was holding a single hand behind her back. 

            "What's in your hand?" she asked automatically.

            Faith shifted her eyes side to side a little.  "What hand?" she asked, moving backwards.  Cordelia advanced on her.

            "That hand," she said, gesturing with the wet nails.

            Liam looked at Faith and knew that Cordelia was about to find them out, so he did the only thing he could think of to do that would distract her.  "Where do babies come from?" he blurted out.

            Cordelia took a deep breath.  "This is so not happening," she told herself.  Faith and Liam both looked up at her, wide eyed.  "Ask Wesley," she told them.

            In a lightning quick move, Faith thrust something under the bed.  Cordelia, silently swearing to make Wes pay for leaving her with baby-sitting duty, crouched down to look under the bed.

            "No!" both children yelled.

            Sighing at the fact that she was ruining her manicure, Cordelia pulled out a large broad sword from underneath the bed.  She glared at the children.

            "I swear you two are the most violent children I've ever met.  If it isn't 'stab this' or 'slash that,' or 'kick those,' it's playing with heavy metal artillery," she muttered, before remembering that she was supposed to be the adult.  "What's the rule about weapons?" she asked.

            "We're not supposed to touch them," Liam volunteered cheerfully, not looking the least bit guilty.

            Cordelia looked at Faith.  The little girl looked down sullenly and wouldn't look back up. 

            "Faith?" Cordelia said.

            "I hate your damn rules," Faith muttered darkly, and as soon as the words were out of her mouth, the little girl's body began to tremble just slightly.  Cordelia didn't notice, but Liam did.

            "I won't let anything bad happen to you, Faith," he promised softly.

            Faith backed herself into a corner and sunk to the ground.  Cordelia tried not to think about the bruises they'd found all over the little girl's body the first week, bruises that hadn't been on the woman's body, bruises that existed in adult Faith as mere memory.

            "I don't need your help," Faith told Liam fiercely.  "I don't need anyone's help.  Never."

            Trembling in the corner, her dark hair still in the lopsided pig tails Wesley had struggled to put it in that morning, Faith looked small and vulnerable, her dark eyes flashing.  Sighing, Cordelia went and scooped the little girl up into her arms, instinctively cuddling her for a moment.

            Faith was stiff in her grasp, but after a moment, the little girl put her arms around Cordelia's neck and rested her head on her shoulders.  Cordy could feel the little girl's heart pumping frantically, and she wondered how long it would be before the child would stop getting that frozen, fearful look in her eye.

            "I think it's nap time," Cordelia said, and when Liam started complaining, Cordy just sent him a steely glare.

            Saying nothing, Liam crossed his arms over his chest and brooded, his expression the exact mirror of the adult Angel's broody look.

            After naptime, Cordelia taught the children a new game, entitled Treating Cordelia like a Princess.  It didn't catch on as fast as she would have liked, and by the time Wes came home, she had taken to painting the children's fingernails to keep them entertained.

            Liam considered his hot pink nails, tilting his head slightly toward the side.  He'd gotten used to television and cars in the weeks he'd been in this strange place, but pink nail polish was something altogether new.

            "Look!" Faith said, a rare smile flashing across her face, as she held her nails gingerly out for Wesley's inspection.

            "Fetching," Wes said, trying not to think about all he'd discovered regarding Faith's past as he looked at the little girl. 

            "Welcome home, pussy," Liam said to Wes in a jolly voice.

            "Liam!" Cordy and Wes both said at the same time.  At first, Liam hadn't understood that Faith's name for Wes was a bad word, and once he had, he'd begun using it even more frequently.

            Both of them turned to glare at Faith.  The two children were such bad influences on each other.  Still strangely enamored with her polished nails, Faith paid them no attention at all.

            Wesley sighed.  He'd been having no luck on the reversal spell.  It wasn't a simple matter of using the original spell.  Instead, he had to carefully construct a new spell to undo the damage his carelessness had caused.

            He felt a little hand pulling on the bottom of his pant leg.  He looked down to see Liam grinning up at him.  "Where do babies come from?" the little boy asked.

            "Oh-----"

            "Don't say it," Cordy said warningly.

            "---dear," Wesley finished.

            In the silence that followed, Faith finally stopped looking at her nails and cleared her throat, ready to ask a question of her own.  "Wesley," she said clearly, her little voice soft and demanding, "I have a question, too."

            Wes looked down at her, his eyebrows raised.  "What's your question, Faith?" he asked her warily.

            "Are you Cordy's bitch?" Faith asked earnestly.

            "Faith!" Wes said.  "Language, young lady."

            Faith gave him a hurt look.  It had been an honest question.  Cordelia couldn't help but grin at the little girl.  Sometimes, she loved that kid.

            After a moment of silence, Liam and Faith both spoke at the same time.

            "Well," they said in unison, "are you?"

TBC… next up, Wes gets his share of babysitting duty as he tries to take the kiddos out for dinner with disastrous results, later, preschool, Kate, Lindsey, and the Sunnydale gang get their share of Liam and Little Faith.