DISCLAIMER: Joss owns.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: If you guys have time, please check out THERE BE DRAGONS, my newest fic, starring a Dru/Spike child from another dimension.
THROWBACK: Chapter Eighteen
"If you're happy and you know it, slay a vamp," Faith's little voice rang out just louder than Liam's.
"If you're happy and you know it, slay a vamp." Both children clapped.
"If you're happy and you know it, then your wench will surely show it, if you're happy and you know it, slay a vamp!" The children dissolved into giggles, and Buffy found herself walking along to the tune.
Spike rolled his eyes. "I liked the other song better," he said.
Immediately, the children changed tunes, and, if it was humanly possible, began singing even louder. "This is the wanker ass bint song. It's about wankers and asses and bints…"
"Orgasms," Anya said in a stage whisper. The children obliged her.
"And oooooooorrrrrrrrgaaaaaaaaaassssssmmmmms!"
"Do sheep have orgasms?" Liam questioned curiously, breaking off from the song while Faith went into another verse extolling the virtues of eating preschool teachers.
Spike eyed Liam, amused. "Note to self," he said loftily, "mock Peaches Senior upon his return for unhealthy sheep fetish."
"What's a fetish?" both kids asked at once.
"Well," Anya said, a huge smile crossing her face.
Xander clapped his hand over her mouth. "It's kind of like cheetohs," he improvised.
"Cheetohs?" Willow mouthed to Xander over the kids' heads. Xander shrugged.
Faith and Liam looked thoughtful.
"A cheetoh fetish," Anya mused, as soon as Xander took his hand off of her mouth. "Interesting."
"What in the world?" Kate spoke under her breath and Lindsey, barely masking his amusement, turned to look at her.
"I believe the children are singing," he told her.
Kate shot him a disgruntled look.
Lindsey grinned. Disgruntled was a good look for her.
"I could tell that much," she said.
"Ooooooorrrrrrrrrrgaaaaaaaassssmmmmmssss!" Liam's yelling/singing hung in the air, and for an awkward moment, neither the lawyer nor the cop spoke.
"Interesting song choice," Lindsey said finally, a note of amusement hidden in his voice.
"Who are those children?" Kate asked.
Lindsey, keeping his voice down, turned to her as they followed the loudly singing group into the old and slightly charred high school. "The little boy you've met before," he said, sure of it now. "The little girl…"
His voice trailed off.
Are you a good man? She'd asked him.
Are you a good girl? He'd asked her in return, and brazenly, she'd told him no.
"Faith," he said out loud.
"Sir, what would you like to drink? Sir? Sir?"
Wes finally focused on the woman. "Pardon?" he said, his voice rough.
She smiled brightly at him even as she couldn't keep herself from rolling her eyes. "Would you like a soda? Some water?"
"You don't happen to have answers in there, do you?" Wes asked, peering sardonically into her beverage cart.
She shook her head, making a clicking sound with her tongue.
"In that case, I'll have a Ginger Ale."
As he sipped his drink, Wes thought of the children. Liam with a chocolate-covered face. Faith snuggled tight in his arms. She was so little. So innocent.
The facts were facts, though. Los Angeles needed Angel. Did he have the right to keep the champion a child? A non-vampiric child who might never grow into a champion?
Wes shook his head.
Liam could not stay a child indefinitely.
But what of Faith? Wes wondered. What purpose was there in bringing her back? Bringing her back to what? To prison? To guilt? To the results of the fact that no one, himself included, had cared enough to fight the ghosts of her past?
They hadn't even realized there were ghosts.
Wesley took a swig of his Ginger Ale. He closed his eyes, images of Faith and Liam burned into his mind.
"Remember," Buffy told the kiddos. "You stay close to Cordelia, and if anything bad happens, scream."
"Scream what?" Liam asked.
"Cheetohs?" Faith suggested, giving Xander an impish look.
He grinned at her. Underneath the anguish and the attitude, that kid was a charmer. Who could resist dinosaur band-aids?
Buffy stepped cautiously into the hallway, her slayer sense on high alert.
Faith shivered. The back of her neck felt all funny, and her stomach was playing tug of war with itself.
When the first vamp came into sight, Buffy and Faith both charged towards it.
"Faith!" Cordy's voice rang out, but the little, dark slayer paid no attention.
Buffy thrust herself in front of the child, but Faith launched herself off the ground, flying through the air toward the vampire, and in the next moment, another vamp caught Buffy from behind, taking her attention off of the little girl.
Faith didn't have a stake, but as her skin stood on end, she could only think of one thing.
Bad. That thing was bad. She hit him as hard as she could in the face with her tiny fist, taking him by surprise.
Bad.
Bad. Bad girl. Little slut. I'll show you. Stupid little bitch. Do you know what happens to bad girls?
"Bad," Faith grunted out, pummeling the demon with every ounce of strength she had. "Bad." She lowered her voice to a hiss.
Liam started towards her. He wasn't about to let Faith fight all by herself. Spike grabbed the back of the child's shirt and unceremoniously picked up the wriggling little boy and handed him to Cordy.
"I believe this is yours," he drawled. It wouldn't do to let the Half-Poof get himself killed.
Without another word, Spike launched himself into the middle of the fight, on his way to retrieve Faith.
Silently, Kate and Lindsey stood in the shadows and watched the fight.
"Vampires," Kate said, her voice dull.
"It would appear so," Lindsey replied.
"And the girl, that little girl," Kate said, watching the child whose every movement screamed of rage and pent-up anguish.
"Faith," Lindsey supplied. He'd had to see it for himself to know for sure. He'd sent an assassin after Angel and somehow, both the assassin and the target had ended up as four year old children.
"Ugly," Faith said out loud, grabbing a piece of debris in her fist and hitting the vampire with it, full force. "Ugly. Bad. Stupid." She punctuated every word with a devastating blow. "Little bitch. Little slut."
Kate watched, horrified, as the words surged from the little girl. This was the enemy. Hurt and open, raw and screaming. This was Faith.
Spike hauled the little girl into his arms, and in one smooth movement, Buffy leaned in and staked the vampire.
As the vamp burst into dust, little Faith, her dark hair coming out of its ponytail entirely, struggled against Spike's grip.
"Gonna kill it," she said ferociously. "Gotta kill it."
Pillow on her face. Can't breathe. Can't breathe.
"Let me kill it!" Faith said lowly.
Spike held the flailing child close. "Shhh, now, little luv," he whispered into her hair.
"It's dead," Buffy said softly, as she finished off the last vamp. "It's gone, Faith."
Why was Mommy asleep in the bathtub?
Faith turned wild eyes on Buffy.
My fault.
"You," Faith burst out angrily, tears cascading down her face. "You have to take everything."
Buffy looked at her, bewildered. She reached out to touch the little girl softly, and as Buffy moved, Faith threw her arms up in front of her face protectively.
"Don't." The word escaped her mouth before Faith could stop it.
"I'm not going to hurt you," Buffy said, her voice low and her heart breaking. This was Faith? This was the girl who she'd once nearly killed? The one she'd never been able to reach?
"No one's gonna hurt you, my Faith," Liam piped up from Cordy's arms. "I wouldn't let them. I'd wanker their wench good if they tried something." The little boy put on his fiercest face.
Cordy walked over to Faith and knelt down next to her. "No one's going to hurt you," she said, her voice even. "Not now. Not ever again."
Faith looked back at her. "Don't you leave me, Cordy," Faith said. "Don't you leave me again, like everybody. Don't you leave me like Wes, Cordy," Faith practically growled.
Cordy reached out and smoothed a hand over the little girl's hair. "Oh, baby," she said. "I'm not leaving. This is me, not leaving. And Wes is coming back."
Faith stared at the seer, her little arms crossed over her chest.
"And you shouldn't have run into the fight," Cordy continued. "What's the rule about fighting evil?"
"Always ask first," Faith and Liam said at once.
"And look both ways before crossing the street," Liam added. He grabbed Faith's hand casually in his own, and with the motion, a single Barbie band-aid fell off of his arm and onto the floor.
"And don't pretend Giles is evil," Faith added with a tentative little grin.
"Yes," Cordy said. "Not pretending Giles is evil just so you can throw him around is a very important rule."
"No biting," Liam continued, "unless it's Riley."
Cordy tried not to laugh, but failed miserably. Then she fixed a look on Faith. "The moral of the story is that you don't just run into a fight," she said. "It's dangerous and something bad could happen."
A stubborn look settled over Faith's face, and moving on instinct, Cordy pulled both children into a hug. Liam readily hugged back, but for a moment, Faith stood there, motionless. And then, fiercely, she threw herself against Cordelia and hugged her hard, burying her face in the older woman's chest.
In the silence that followed, Buffy looked up and saw Lindsey and Kate staring at them.
Anya broke the silence. "This is the Orgasm song," she sang under her breath in a surprisingly good voice. "It's about enticing sexual positions and the capitalistic integrity of domestic currency…"
Liam and Faith looked at each other and joined in on the song.. "Aaaaaaaaaaaannnnnnnndddddd…. CHEETOHS!" They both added, dissolving into giggles.
Anya sighed happily. "And cheetohs," she added, poking Xander in the side.
"Cordy?" Faith said, realizing something.
Faith looked at the little girl, who was giving her very innocent eyes, and she wanted to groan. Those were totally Faith's Let Me Stab/Kill/Maim/Eat/Do/Say something I'm not supposed to eyes.
"Yes, Faith?" Cordy answered warily.
"Do we have to tell Wes?" Faith asked, all innocence. "About the vamp?"
Liam solemnly shook his head side to side, trying to influence her decision, and looking at the two of them, absolutely covered in band-aids, their hair disheveled, Cordy felt the insane urge to laugh.
They were a handful, all right, her little Seek and Destroy, but they were her handful.
Cordy threw her hair behind her shoulder and responded like a true parent. "We'll see."
TBC… next up, Wes gets home, Faith and Liam give each other manicures, Kate and Lindsey explain their presence, as Wesley makes his final decision and things wrap to a close. Plus, upon request, Faith/Wes bonding time.
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