DISCLAIMER: Joss owns them all.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Sorry for the sporadic updates, but I'm doing what I can. Thank you to all of you who reviewed. A response like that makes it hard to ignore this story, no matter how little time I have.
THROWBACK: Chapter Seven
Wesley hung up the phone and stepped carefully around Faith, who was currently gouging a hole in the floor with a knife. Where she'd gotten the knife, he didn't know, and as soon as he could build up the strength, he'd take it away from her, but right now, he had slightly bigger problems. Besides, the child was perfectly capable of handling a knife, as scary as that notion was.
Wes approached Cordelia and cleared his throat. "I found the last ingredient for the reversal spell," he said.
"That would be of the good," Cordy said. She paused for a moment. "You have Oh Dear Face. Why do you have Oh Dear Face?"
Wes cleared his throat again. "Because the cantyon grass roots must be fresh to work, and they come in season in cyclical fashion…" Wes trailed off.
Cordy waved her nail file at him. "And in English, that would mean?"
"It won't be even remotely possible to complete the spell for another six months," Wes said, wincing in anticipation of Cordelia's response.
"Well that certainly sucks, Brit Boy," Cordy said.
"Well that certainly sucks," a small voice echoed.
Cordy looked down at Liam and smiled despite herself. She was half starting to think she liked him better this way.
"Faith has a knife," Liam said, cheerfully tattling. "I want a knife too."
"No knife," Cordelia said firmly. "Nothing that can be used for stabbing, poking, prodding, branding, shooting, decapitating, or other maimworthy purposes."
"What's branding mean?" Liam asked, fascinated, his dark brown hair falling into his baby face.
"You could use a haircut," Cordy said, tousling his hair. Liam wrinkled his little nose and leaned away from her. He did not like the sound of that.
"We should take them to get haircuts, Wes," Cordy said. "And some more clothes. If they're going to be this way for another six months, they need some new clothes. Besides, grown up Angel left us with all of his nice credit cards."
Liam narrowed his eyes at Cordy suspiciously.
"Wes, get that knife away from her before she impales something," Cordy said, mentally thinking of putting Liam in Gap Kids clothing and Faith in some kind of stylish mini-Cordy clothing.
Wesley walked over and knelt down next to Faith. "Hand it over, baby girl," he said, the term of endearment slipping easily off his tongue.
Faith turned to look at him, batted her eyelashes innocently, and grinned. "No," she said simply, tightening her hold on the knife.
Wesley put some mean in his voice. "Don't make me take it away from you," he said.
Little Faith snorted. "As if you could," she muttered.
Wes held out his hand. "Now, Faith." Grudgingly, Faith handed him the knife, and pleased that she'd done what he had told her to for once, Wes sat the knife out of her reach and picked her up, swinging her around as he did.
Her little kid laughter filled the room, and for the moment, Wes was very pleased with himself.
An hour later, he wasn't in such a good mood. Why in the world he had thought taking the children to get haircuts was going to be painless, he didn't know. As the barber approached Liam with a pair of scissors, the little boy screamed bloody murder.
"Get away from me with those things, you bloody, sodding prat!" Liam screeched, jumping out of the barber chair and balling his hands into little fists.
Cordelia gave Wesley a look. She had one guess as to where Liam had heard those very British sounding curse words. Already, the boy was starting to lose his Irish accent.
The barber gave Wesley a very pained look, and Wes sighed. Walking over to the little boy, he picked him up and sat down in the barber's chair, Liam wrapped firmly in his arms. Holding the little boy as still as he could, Wes nodded to the barber.
Off to the side, Cordelia snorted with laughter at the sight before her. If Angel retained his memories once he became himself again, he was going to be pretty embarrassed between the streaking and the tantrums.
Finally giving up, Liam sat in Wesley's lap, his bottom lip jutting out and a brooding expression settling over his face as the barber snipped away at his too-long hair.
Cordy looked down when Faith tugged on her legs, and she was shocked when the little girl held up her arms to be held. Moving on instinct, Cordy picked the little girl up and settled her against her hip.
"You aren't going to throw a fit when it's your turn, are you?" Cordy asked her, hoping she'd made a good choice when she'd told Wesley she'd handle Faith if he'd take Liam for haircut duty.
Faith considered the question, a thoughtful expression settling over her four-year-old face. "I don't know," the little girl said candidly.
"How about you don't," Cordy suggested hopefully. Faith didn't say a word, and Cordelia had a feeling that wasn't a good sign.
Five minutes later, Liam had a fairly good haircut, and Wes had several new bruises from holding the little hellion still.
"You look very handsome," Cordy told him, still holding Faith in her arms.
"Do I look fierce?" Liam asked her, smiling hopefully. Cordelia swallowed a laugh. With his cherub cheeks and dark lashes, the little boy looked about as fierce as a puppy, but she didn't want to crush his spirits.
"Fiercer than Wes," she said, shooting the former Watcher a teasing look. Wesley rolled his eyes in an easy motion, but he grinned at her despite himself.
"I look fiercer than Wesley?" Liam asked. "Did you hear that, Faith? I look fiercer than Wes!"
"Your turn, little missy," the barber told Faith, smiling at her. Faith buried her head in Cordelia's shoulder.
The barber laughed. "She's a little doll, that one. Tell her I won't hurt her. We'll just give her little locks a trim, and she'll be done."
"If he touches me," Faith whispered in Cordy's ear. "I'll kick him where it hurts."
"No you won't," Cordy whispered back. A stubborn expression covered Faith's face. "Sweetie," Cordy said, completely forgetting that the child she held was actually Faith, "we just want to cut your hair a little, make it pretty."
Faith thought it over for a moment. Then she leaned in and whispered in Cordy's ear. "Will it look like yours?" she asked.
Cordelia looked at Faith's dark locks. "Maybe," she whispered back, running her hand over the little girl's hair softly.
"Okay," Faith said loudly, "but I still might kick him where it hurts."
Startled, the barber took a step back.
Ten minutes later, Faith's hair was evenly trimmed, and the little girl hopped out of the barber's seat and ran straight into a man with dark hair who looked strangely familiar.
"Who are you?" the little girl asked, putting her hands on her hips and staring up at him boldly.
"Lindsey," the man replied mildly, trying not to be amused by the pip-squeak spitfire in front of him.
"That's a stupid name," Liam informed him, wriggling out of Wesley's grasp to run over and talk to the man as well.
"What's your name?" Lindsey asked the little boy, recognizing Wesley and Cordelia as two of Angel's partners and wondering who the children were.
"Liam," the child told him proudly, "and this is Fai-"
Wes cut him off. "Faye," he said, not wanting Lindsey to make the connection between the assassin Wolfram and Hart had sent after Angel and the child in front of him.
Luckily for Wes, Faith didn't object to the name. She'd been called many names in her life, and most of them hadn't been quite so G-rated as Faye.
Ignoring Wes, Liam, and Cordelia for a moment, Faith stared up at the man in front of her, and the expression on her face wavered for a moment, as if she were deciding whether or not to speak.
"Are you a good man?" she asked finally, staring up at him, no fear on her face.
"Sometimes," Lindsey replied mildly, trying to ignore the fact that the child's question had rocked him to the bones. "Are you a good girl?"
"Never," Faith replied wickedly. "Just ask Wesley."
With that, Wes picked Faith up in one arm, and Liam up in another, and he and Cordy quickly walked out the door.
"Wolfram and Hart," Cordy said, under her breath. "And the suckfest continues."
"And the suckfest continues," Liam belted out, well over his brood session.
"I never got to kick anyone where it hurts," Faith said in complaint, as if she had missed out on some fun.
"Kick this, impale that," Cordy muttered under her breath, but there was no heat in her voice. She was more or less falling in love with both little ones, and she couldn't have denied it if she'd wanted to.
Wesley cleared his voice. "I've been thinking," he said.
"That's never a good thing," Liam said in a stage whisper to Faith. The little girl giggled.
"The two of us can hardly run Angel Investigations by ourselves and look after the children for the next six months, and if Wolfram and Hart figures out what's going on…" Wes trailed off.
"So what do we do?" Cordy asked, narrowing her eyes at the two children Wes held. They had their little heads together, and they looked like they were plotting something.
Wes wasn't happy with the option they had left, but he couldn't see any way around it. "Sunnydale," he said.
Cordelia took a deep breath.
From Wesley's arms, Faith and Liam giggled. They were definitely plotting something.
TBC… A nice long chapter since the update took a while. I hope you liked it. Up next, Sunnydale, preschool, and fluff galore.
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