Forward Rewind Chapter 6: Lipstick War Paint, an angel fanfic

A/N- Sorry for the slow updatage, but hey, its a thought out chapter. The storys also starting to get substance. PLEASE REVIEW! And FYI, the sequel to my story Rewarded should be up soon. (tonite maybe!)

::::: Forward Rewind ::::: Chapter Six ::::: Lipstick War Paint :::::

"Kissing tag?" Wesley asked the four year olds infront of him, while resisting a tasteful 'Oh Dear'.

"Yeah-huh," smiled Cordy, perched on Fred's lap."It's the royal game of my kingdom. And Allen has already found the kiss-stick."

As all eyes turned to Allen Doyle, the curly haired boy revealed a tube of lipstick from behind his back, a tube of lipstick that happened to match the one now missing from Fred's purse. And right then, Wes knew he was going to let it slip.

"Oh dear..."

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If anyone were to walk into the file hall of Wolfram & Hart, it would look as though a tornado had hit the large room of file cabinets.

Surrounded by a sea of papers, Spike sat on the cool floor with two particular files open infront of him, picking up the one closest to him labeled Jaquard Williams. (It seemed that W&H had files on everyone.) The papers inside of the manilla folder were arranged chronologically, showing each child the caretaker had been incharge of over the years. He skimmed each case, looking for anything out of the ordinary. And after looking at a dozen, patterns seemed to emerge. The children, varying in age, all suffered weight loss while in his care, a fact that Jaquard explained as "Growth Spurts". Also, in half of the cases Jaquard had been fired for neglect although charges were never pressed. Coming to the page on his care of Cordy, Spike found that with her both were true.

Abandoning the folder on Williams, he picked up Cordelia's. Opening it, he saw that the folder had sections on each of Cordelia's 23 years of living, and everything about her parents. Her father, Brenten Chase, was an overseas business man, who was almost never home, while Lynda Chase was a reknowned model, often on other continents for photo-shoots until she was fired when Cordelia was 12. He flipped to Age 8, the year that Jaquard was fired, and was greeting with an older version of the four-year-old sitting in Fred's office, the same chestnut hair, tiny nose, and hazel eyes. Spike saw that unlike the other cases, her parents had known of, or at least suspected child neglect for at least 3 years before they did anything. According the the file, the final straw for the parents took place almost a year before Jaquard was fired, when Cordelia was hospitalized for severe malnutrition and dehydration. And after the 7 year old had recovered from the ordeal, he convinced her parents that the child had stopped eating as a form of 'attention getting'. Which they believed, until it happened again 8 months later, after which he was promptly fired.

Spike let the file drop from his hand. Knowing that there was really nothing he could do with the information he had gathered, he simply let it sink in.

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Allen Doyle smiled at his fellow kiss-taggers from under two layers of dark red lipstick, complete with matching war paint stipes under his eyes, identical to the ones under Wesley's. (Wesley had won the "I do not wear lipstick" battle, agreeing on the streaks instead.) Cordelia Lynn had a superthick layer on her lips as well, and, since she hiccuped while applying it, also covering a great deal of her face.

"So who starts?" Fred asked Cordy eagerly, her original layer of lipstick still intact.

"Duh." The tiny brunette responded, hands on her hips. "The WonderfulQueenPrincess Me starts." Making a bizzare puckering face, like she had been sucking a lemon, Cordy ran at Wes and connected with his lips, leaving a wet four-year-old kiss behind. As she turned away for a second, Wes quickly wiped at his mouth. "Now you!" She grinned, pointing from Wesley to Fred, who was seated next to him, Allen bouncing up and down in agreement

As a lipstick covered Cordy pointed at her, Winnifred Burkle attempted to hide her eagerness. The man she had wanted to kiss for quite some time was being coaxed into it by an over-active pair of four-year-olds. As Wes leaned in nervously, Fred closed her eyes as a blush creeped up her neck, resting around her ears. Expecting a quick peck, she was (pleasantly) suprised when Wesley's lips lingered, his surrounding stubble tickling her chin. As she counted seconds happily, a holler from the floor broke them apart.

"Allen's turn!" The curly Irish boy bellowed, picking up Cordelia's third-person tendency. Giggling with new found shyness, Fred quickly pecked Allen on the cheek, who turned to His Highness. "Toast-Whiskey kisses for Princess!" He grinned, chasing down the four-year-old girl. As her lips met his, Fred and Wes, who were looking intently at each other, failed to notice the tiny bright blue light that emitted from their rouge covered lips.

A/N dun dun dun. R&R pweeze!