DISCLAIMER: Joss owns everyone.  I own no one (except for the wench song… Ohhhhhhhhhh…)

AUTHOR'S NOTE:  In response to some reviews, if you know Gaelic, email me, and maybe we can work something out to go in the fic.

As to the question of what Faith and Angel will remember when they get turned back… who said I'm turning them back? (mwahahahahhaha…) Honestly, though, you'll just have to wait and see.

I'm trying to fill some requests this chapter… so here it goes with some Cordy and Wes bonding with little Faith and Liam, some Scooby action, some Buffy babysitting, and… well, read on... it may take me a couple of chapters to get it all in, but it's coming…

Also, you might want to keep an eye on my profile… I'm working on a companion piece to this fic involving Little Faith, Liam, Halloween, and trick or treating… Let me know if you'd read it if I finished writing it…

THROWBACK: CHAPTER TWELVE

            Wes spread the information he had out on the table.  He sighed and rubbed his temples. 

            "Working on the reversal spell?" Cordy asked, coming into the room, her voice low.  In her arms, she carried a sleeping Liam, his body limp and a soft baby smile on his face.  He looked so angelic that Wes practically snorted.  Reaching up and pushing Liam's baby wisps of hair out of his face absentmindedly, Wes shook his head.

            "No," he said, taking off his glasses and cleaning them.  "Not exactly."  

            Cordelia looked at the papers on the table.  "Okay," she said.  "You know It?" Cordy asked.  Wes was clueless as to what she was talking about.  "I am officially not getting It," Cordy said.

            Wes cleared his throat.  "Faith's file," he said.  "It's everything The Council knew about her.  Shockingly little, actually."  Wes looked down.  "I was her Watcher."

            "Don't go getting all guilt-like on me," Cordy said.  "Kids can smell guilt, and the last thing we need is for Search and Destroy to figure out you feel all bad about the way things went with adult Faith."

            Even as she said it, Cordelia heard her own voice saying one of the many insults she'd thrown in Faith's general direction.  She adjusted Liam in her arms.

            "But I want to wench the wanker, you bloody sodding fool," the little boy murmured. 

            Cordy sighed a very aggrieved sigh.  "That reminds me.  Someone really needs to stake Spike, even if he is still a puppy.  An evil puppy is still…" Cordy trailed off for a moment.

            Not this again, she thought.

            "Someone needs to stake Spike," she said more firmly, even though she had no intention of staking Spike.  He irritated Buffy far too much to be dusted.

            "Duly noted," Wes mumbled, looking down at the papers.  According to the Council's records, Faith had been in various foster homes from the time she was four and a half until her calling at age fifteen.  The records said nothing about her life before the age of four.

            "Waaaaahhhhh-taaaaaaaa!" Cordy and Wes both jumped at the sound of the high pitched battle cry.  Liam slept through it, having a little boy's capability of sleeping through anything and everything.

            "Faith," Wes said, his eyes widening.  "I thought you were watching her."

            Cordy shook her head.  "Giles said he'd look after her for a few minutes while I came up here to put Liam down."

            Thinking about the fact that Giles had been left to the mercy of a four year old whirlwind with super strength, Wes raced down the stairs, and Cordy followed, Liam still snoozing blissfully unaware in her arms.

            They arrived in the kitchen on Buffy's heels.

            "What happened?" Buffy asked, looking around the room.  The floor was covered with water, a bar of soap had been smooshed into the floor, and Giles was lying on the floor, looking quite dazed.

            The Watcher shook his head for a moment and then shot a disgruntled look at Wes and Cordelia.

            "You failed to mention that Faith had retained her slayer powers," he said, wincing a little as he stood up.

            Wes, feeling an insane urge to laugh, knelt down to Faith's level.  "Did you hurt Mr. Giles, Faith?" he asked sternly.

            Faith batted her eyelashes innocently at Wesley and then turned to glare at Giles.  "He tried to make me eat soap!" she said indignantly.

            Wes, Buffy, and Cordelia turned their glances to Giles.  Giles, looking a little flustered, explained.  "She was using vulgar language, and I told her that if I had said something like that as a child, I would have had my mouth washed out with soap."

            Picturing a little Giles cursing made Buffy bite down on her lips to keep from smiling.

            "And?" Wes asked, having trouble picturing Giles actually trying to wash Faith's mouth out with soap.  The older Watcher simply wasn't that aggressive.

            "And," Giles said, glaring at Faith.  "I believe her exact response was 'I'd like to see you try…'" Giles trailed off, feeling awkward repeating Faith's words out loud.  "Pussy," he said, arching his eyebrows a bit.

            "You know, Giles," Buffy said, "that's gotta be one of the top ten things I never thought I'd hear you say, right after 'I've always wanted to have a threesome' and right before 'that Britney Spears is extremely talented.'"

            Faith tilted her head to the side and looked at Buffy.  "What's a threesome?" she asked curiously.

            "Nevermind," everyone in the room said at once.

            "Threesome," the sleeping Liam murmured.  "Waaaaaa-taaaaaaaah."

            "Waaaaaa-taaaaaaah!" Faith echoed.

            Wesley cleared his throat and gave Faith a stern look.  "You don't hurt people," he said firmly.  Faith shrugged, and he gripped her shoulders firmly.  "I mean it, Faith-girl," he said, "when someone's weaker than you are…"

            Giles harrumphed.

            "… you don't hit them just because you're strong."

            "But that sodding wanker was going to make me eat soap," Faith said fiercely, digging her toe into the kitchen floor.

            Wes gave Faith an even look.  "Do you want me to wash your mouth out, young lady?" he asked.  He couldn't believe that he'd just used the phrase 'young lady.'  Faith was turning him into a father.

            Faith shook her head sullenly.

            "Then apologize to Giles and watch your language," Wes said firmly.

            Faith turned to Giles.  "Sorry," she said, not sounding sorry at all.  Cordy gave Faith a warning look over Liam's sleeping head.  Faith sighed.  "Sorry I called you a pussy and hurt you 'cause you're weaker than me," Faith amended.

            Then she looked at Wes and Cordy.  "Happy?" she asked them.

            "Ecstatic," Wes said dryly.  Stubbornly, Faith turned toward him and held her hands up silently.  Without even thinking about it, Wes picked her up into his arms.  She snuggled against his chest, and Wes turned his attention to Giles.

            "Terribly sorry about that," he said.

            Buffy cleared her throat.  "I know I said I'd babysit for you guys while you went to do the researchy thing, but…"

            She trailed off.

            Wordlessly, Cordy transferred Liam to Buffy's arms.  "It's break time for Cordy," she announced, leaning over to kiss the top of Liam's head.  "I've got a manicure appointment."

            Wes cleared his throat.  "And I'm going on a little trip," he announced.  He had every intention of looking into Faith's past himself.  There was something about the woman they'd all missed, and having met the girl, he wanted to know what it was.

            Faith looked at him, alarmed.  "You're leaving?" she asked in a whisper.

            Wes turned her around in his arms so that they were facing each other.  "I'm coming back," he said.  "Cordy, Buffy, and Giles will take good care of you."

            Faith wasn't so sure about that.

            Buffy shot a pleading look at Giles.

            "I have some…er… some outside research to do," Giles said.  "I'm sure you can handle the two of them far better than I can.  After all, you have slayer strength as well."

            A new though occurred to Buffy, and she looked at Angel.  "Is he, you know…?" she trailed off.

            "He's mine," Faith announced firmly.  "My Liam."

            "He's not all fangy, if that's what you mean," Cordy said.

            "My Liam," Faith reiterated.  She didn't want Buffy to get any ideas.

            Buffy shot an annoyed look at the child.

            "You know," Cordy said under her breath so that no one but Buffy could hear her, "she's just a little kid, Buffy, and there's stuff there you don't even want to know about.  You might think about that.  She's just a kid."

            Buffy blanched for a moment, and shifting Liam in her arm, she smiled at Faith.  "We're going to have lots of fun while Wes and Cordy are gone," she said brightly.

            Faith smiled, her eyes sparkling in a way that made Wesley and Cordelia groan.  "You know," the little girl said.  "I think we are."

            Right then, Buffy decided to call for reinforcements.

            An hour later, Liam was awake, filled with energy after his nap, and insisting on going to see his Uncle Spike.

            "Uncle Spike?" Buffy asked.  Somehow, that just seemed wrong.

            "Yes," Liam said.  "He tells great stories about eating people and blonde haired bints who can't resist the Big Bad."  Liam's eyes got wide just thinking about it.  "And he says hell and ass a lot," Liam continued.  Buffy gave him a warning look.  "'He says 'hell' and 'ass,' a lot" Liam corrected himself, using air quotes.  He'd seen Cordelia use them before.

            Faith giggled.  "I like Uncle Spike, too," Faith said.  "He's not a 'bloody' 'sodding' 'pussy' 'ass.'"  The little girl made liberal use of air quotes.  She and Liam burst into giggles.  They'd found a way around the no bad words rule.

            "No more air quotiness," Buffy said firmly.  "None."

            Faith and Liam grinned at each other."

            "'Okay,'" they both said at the same time, using air quotes.

            The doorbell rang.  Buffy breathed a sigh of relief.  Her reinforcements were here.  Xander, Willow, Anya, and Riley trooped into the room.

            "Hello, small people with grubby fingers," Anya said cheerfully.  She turned to Xander.  "The little girl is cuter," she said loudly, turning to Xander, "although they're both relatively aesthetically pleasing for small humans."

            Xander looked at the kids, feeling a little awkward.  He'd never liked Angel, and he had a history he would have rather forgotten with Faith.

            Liam grinned up at him.  "Do you know any stories?" Liam asked cheerfully.

            "Do you know any songs?" Faith asked.

            "Do you know the wench song?" they both asked together.

            Xander looked around the room for a second.  Was he supposed to know a song about wenches?

            "Sure," he said, thinking on his feet.  "Ummmm… this is the wench song," he said, half-singing, half-speaking and sounding very awkward.  "It's a…ummmmm… song about wenches and… umm… Cheetohs."  Riley rolled his eyes at Xander.  Who did he think he was kidding?

            "Cheetohs?" Willow asked, giving Xander a strange look.

            Little Liam and Faith beamed up at Xander.  Finally.  Here was an adult who knew how to sing properly.

            For a moment, the room was silent, and then Faith spoke up.  "What's a threesome?" she asked, still pondering Buffy's words from earlier.

            Anya's eyes lit up.  "Well, small inquisitive child," she said, "a threesome is when…"

            "Anya!" Buffy and Xander said at once.

            "We will talk later, little Faith-shaped one," Anya said.

            In that moment, Buffy knew she was in way, way over her head.

TBC… loooong chapter there… please review and tell me what you think!  Up next, the scoobs and the little ones, more of Kate and Lindsey, what Wes finds as he digs into Faith's past, and much, much more…

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