Disclaimer: Since my name is not Joss Whedon, 'Angel' and all the characters associated with the show belong to someone who isn't me. I also don't own the storyline - that's taken from gidgetgirl's 'Twice The Trouble' Challenge, posted on the Chocolate Covered Strawberries Challenge Archive.

'Twice The Trouble' Challenge

A Fred Throwback. In season five of Angel, Illyria's attempt to takeover Fred's body is thwarted by the Powers that Be, and the result is that, when Illyria enters Fred's body, the body splits in half: into two identical little girls, save one has blue hair. The Angel gang has to keep little Illyria (if that's her name...) from taking over the world, and take care of little Fred. You take it from there.

Requirements:
The evil one must have blue hair.
Harmony must make an appearance in the fic.
Both Gunn and Wes must babysit... one of the girls must like each of them better than the other.

Author's Note: A quick opinion poll - Which characters should go to the zoo? Should I send both girls or just Fred? Wes and Gunn or just one of them?

Author's Note II: I'd like to thank gidgetgirl for her taco suggestion.

Author's Note III: To cloudofcalm - you're right, it's always the evil one who gets the attention, so I'm giving little Fred the spotlight for now.

Words in / / = Thoughts.

Chapter 5.

Two and a half hours later.

Much as he hated to admit it, Angel had actually enjoyed the movie.

The triumph of inner over outer beauty appealed to the romantic in him and, though he would have denied it under oath, he found the songs quite catchy.

Little Fred, needless to say, had been absolutely enchanted by the whole film, especially the talking furniture.

Once the movie was over, Fred had curled up on the couch and dozed off for an hour while Angel perused one of the dozen childcare books that Harmony had picked up on her shopping spree, checking on her every couple of minutes to make sure that she hadn't wandered off like her counterpart.

Illyria had elected to remain with Harmony, who was more than happy to have a small protégée to instruct in all matters relating to fashion, make up and the world of vampires.

Angel was just glad that he didn't have to deal with both girls at once.

After sleeping for just over an hour, Fred woke up and wandered over to Angel's desk, rubbing the sleep sand from her eyes.

"I'm hungry." She announced plaintively.

Angel checked his watch. "It's nearly half past twelve. Do you want to have lunch now?"

She nodded emphatically.

"What do you want to eat?"

Her face lit up. "Tacos."

Angel's face fell as he remembered the dirty looks the janitors had shot him when they saw the mess on the carpet and the red sauce stain that had simply refused to be shifted.

"We can order anything you want in," He offered, keeping his tone bright. "We could get pizza," /At least it's not as messy as tacos. / "Would you like some pizza? Or we could get Chinese food?"

"No thank you." Fred gave him an angelic smile. "Just tacos, please."

"You . . ." Angel took a few seconds to mentally prepare himself for the inevitable showdown. "You can't have tacos."

"But I want tacos." Fred's said in a calm, reasonable tone. "You said I could have whatever I wanted and I want tacos."

"What I meant was that you could have anything you wanted except tacos." Angel argued, feeling slightly hypocritical.

"That's not fair!" Fred pouted. "You said anything. It doesn't matter what you meant, only what you said."

"Well, now I'm saying that you can't have tacos." Angel kept his voice firm. /Be consistent. Remember what the book said. /

"Why not?" She stamped her foot petulantly.

"Because you made too much of a mess last night and besides," Angel mentally crossed his fingers, praying that she'd buy his excuse. "It's not good for you to eat the same thing all the time." Her eyes filled with tears and he had to force himself to stick to his resolution. "Now what - besides tacos - do you want for lunch?"

"Nothing." Fred stuck out her lower lip resolutely. "Only tacos."

Angel sighed, irritated. "So you're going on a hunger strike now?" Fred refused to answer him. For a four year old, she was an expert guilt tripper. Angel was starting to wish that he hadn't spoken out against tacos so firmly, that he could reverse his decision without stripping himself of every vestige of adult authority he possessed. "It's not going to work. I'm not going to let you have tacos."

Fred took a deep breath, opened her mouth as wide as she could and screamed.

* * *

The lobby.

Harmony looked up from doing Illyria's nails, alarmed. "God," Her eyes were wide. "Do you think that he's killing her in there?"

Illyria shrugged disinterestedly. "Probably."

* * *

One minute later.

Even with his ears covered, Angel couldn't drown out Fred's combined screaming and sobbing.

His head ached.

Fred may have been a sweet kid, but she could be very single minded when she wanted to be.

He was just about ready to give her tacos, ice cream, candy, the moon if she wanted it.

Anything for a little peace.

/Boundaries. / He reminded himself firmly. /You have to set some boundaries. She'll stop screaming . . . eventually. /

"What's the hubbub, bub?" A concerned Lorne, followed by Gunn, entered Angel's office.

"I can hear her from my office." Gunn complained. "What's the matter."

Angel gave his friends a sheepish smile. "She wants tacos."

"So get her tacos."

Fred stopped screaming long enough to give Gunn an approving half smile. At least one of the grown-ups had some sense.

"I can't." Angel hissed under his breath. "I said she couldn't have them. You know what kind of a mess they made last night and besides, we can't give in to her every time she has a tantrum." Despite his resolution, he was very tempted to give her her own way.

"Good point." Lorne acknowledged.

Little Fred, seeing that their support was waning, stopped screaming and directed her energies to crying.

"I've got an idea." Gunn darted  out of the room, returning with something folded in his hand. "Look what I've got, Fred," he crouched down in front of her, breathing a sigh of relief when she stopped crying long enough to let him speak. "These are special tacos."

The four year old gave him a pitying look. "Those aren't tacos, silly Gunn." She said patronisingly. "Those are folded up sandwiches."

Angel cursed under his breath as Gunn let the two faux tacos fall to the floor.

Gunn shrugged. "I tried."

"What's going on in here?" Little Fred, spotting Wesley, ran straight for him, holding out her arms to be lifted up. Wesley scooped her up, rubbing her back soothingly before turning to the others. "Well?"

"Angel's being mean!"

Wesley glared at the vampire, tightening his protective grasp of Fred. "What did you do to her?"

"What did I do?" Angel was incredulous. "She's the one who was screaming her head off!"

"You must have done something to provoke her."

"He won't let me have tacos for lunch." Fred announced tearfully, snuggling into Wesley's arms. "You'll let me have them, won't you?" She said coaxingly, a beseeching expression in her eyes.

The other three men shook their heads vigourously.

Wesley sighed, setting Fred to her feet and kneeling in front of her, her two hands in his. "Fred," His voice was gentle. "Do you know what a compromise is?"

"Uh-huh." She nodded. "It's when people all get a little bit of what they want so that everybody's happy."

/Close enough. / "Now you can have tacos for lunch. . ."

"Wesley." Angel interrupted warningly. "I don't think. . ."

". . .But you have to have something different for dinner and you have to apologize to Angel for screaming at him. Okay?"

Fred took a moment to consider his proposal before nodding gravely.

The adults let out simulataneous sighs of relief.

Little Fred gave Angel an innocent smile. "Sorry I shouted at you." She headed over to him and hugged his legs. "Are you mad?"

It would have taken someone with a heart of stone to resist her.

Angel had no chance.

"I'm not mad at you." He patted her head. "But no more tantrums, okay."

"Okay." She agreed cheerfully. "Can I have my tacos now?"

"Sure." Angel shot Wesley a wicked grin. "But you have to eat them in Wesley's office."

The former Watcher's face fell.

/Damn! /

TBC.