A/N : Thanx to everyone who reviewed the previous chapter; libraflyter, Charmed-angel4, wolf116, Daniel Wesley Rydell, Raptor2, Moonjava, lil-leti, Slayergurl1212, Spuffyfan4eva, Xtremely-Canadian, Demonica Mills, spikes-slayer29590, naiya-isis, MaidenRo, hmm, spikespet2002, spuffy4eva, SquirlyForSpike, Syd, Bridge, yarrow, Time Rowanwood, T, jobe, Alliegirl, Lady Nightspike, IkeepForgetting, funkydevil206, DGtek-CrazyaboutAngel, Gir, Diligo, aej1085, sheilamarie, pixiecorn, Rowan Rice, Chelsea, Moluvsnumber17, CrazymySpike, Archnemeses, Celestia Nailo, amberblood. I really love reading all your comments and opinions, you're all very sweet. Here's the new chapter, with more to come soon. Hope you like it.

(For disclaimer, etc. - see chapter 1)

Chapter 11

Joyce may be a mother of just the one child, but she'd looked after more than that before and she had the good sense enough to realise that two five year olds naked in a bath together may be inappropriate, especially when those two children were Buffy and Spike. Knowing it was going to be impossible to deal with getting one washed whilst keeping an eye on the other, she'd had an idea when buying clothes at the store. Now here she was, kneeling on the bathroom floor between the two kids, getting Buffy into a little pink bathing costume, whilst Spike leant over the side of thetub trying to reach the rising water with his fingers. Joyce caught a hold of him just as it looked like he might fall head first.

"Careful, sweetie" she warned him as she pulled him back. She checked the water temperature, turned off the faucets and got Buffy into the tub where she started splashing immediately.

Joyce then changed Spike into the little blue trunks she'd bought for him, careful about exactly what her daughter could see from her position in the tub.

"Can we have bubbles?" the little girl asked as Spike sat opposite her in the warm water, "Bath-time is no fun without bubbles"

"Bubbles okay with you Spike?" Joyce asked as she reached for the bottle and he nodded cautiously. He wasn't sure that he'd ever been in this situation before. Obviously he'd taken a bath before but not quite like this and not with the bubbles that began to appear all around him as Buffy swooshed the water with her hands.

Spike watched her giggle and play, and just thought how pretty she was. He vaguely remembered thinking so before but never as clearly as he did today.

"What are you staring at, Spikey?" she made a face when she realised he was watching as her mother helped her get clean.

"Nothin'" he shrugged, not willing to share. Buffy frowned a little as Joyce shampooed her hair.

There was relative quiet as Joyce finished getting Buffy washed and then started on Spike. When they'd both been fully soaped, shampooed, and rinsed off they started a splashing war that had them both laughing loudly, even Joyce couldn't stop herself from joining in, though she made the kids calm down when it seemed as if there were more water on the floor and the wall than in the tub. The real problem was that the towels she'd brought in for the kids had also got soaked by water that had overflowed and she was forced to make a choice between leaving the kids alone for a moment, or calling Anya up to watch them whilst she fetched two more towels. After her faithful promise never to leave them alone with her again, it seemed her only option was to risk leaving them alone, even if it did go against all her motherly instincts.

"You two promise to behave whilst I fetch more towels?" she checked.

"We promise Mommy" Buffy nodded as Spike did the same. Joyce kept her eye on them as she backed out of the room, leaving the door slightly ajar as she scurried across the landing.

As soon as she'd gone, Buffy grinned at her friend.

"Can you do this?" she asked him, taking a deep breath and pinching her nose between her fingers as she threw herself under the water and stayed there. Spike was just starting to panic about her when she came back up again, gasped for air but giggling too.

"Your turn" she told him, clearly not considering her game to be at all dangerous. Spike copied exactly what she had done, pushing his head fully under the water and staying down. When Joyce came back in a full two minutes later (she'd had trouble finding fresh towels in the muddled closet) he was still down there and showing no signs of being at all affected.

"Spike!" Joyce yelled in panic and he dutifully brought himself up out of the water, not even breathing heavily - not even breathing at all.

"You don't breathe" Buffy observed as she watched him sit there too still.

"Sometimes I do" he told her, "but I don't think I have to"

Joyce's mind was going into overdrive, her hand on her chest as her heart beat nineteen to the dozen. Spike was so different and so much this little boy she'd learnt to love, that fact he was a vampire had all but completely left her mind.

"Uh, I think it's time we got you kids dried off and dressed" Joyce said shakily as she lifted them out, wrapping them both in a towel each and getting the hair-dryer out.

"Mommy" said little Buffy suddenly, "You said we could have a surprise when you got back from going out" she reminded her mother.

"That's right, sweetie" she smiled, "I bought you both a few things"

She was very proud of the purchases she'd made, though she'd probably vastly over spent on clothes that would only be used for a few days at most, but she just couldn't help herself. It would be worth it to see their little faces when she showed them their new outfits. She knew Buffy would be thrilled though she was less certain about Spike, she was sure he'd be careful not to offend her anyway. If only they could stay this way forever she thought once again, as they giggled together, but all good things must come to an end.

-

"How exactly do you expect to find Willow with this spell?" Anya asked Giles as she knelt by the coffee table, mixing a few ingredients in a small bowl, "She could technically be anywhere in the whole world" she pointed out.

"It is doubtful she has gone far" the Watcher reasoned, "I doubt she will have got out of California at best, which is why I suggest you first try the spell over a map of the state and then we can perhaps zoom in as it were and try again on a more localised area once we know where to start"

"It all seems like a very long and pointless process" the ex-demon sighed, "You know if it wasn't for Willow's irresponsible use of dangerous magicks all of this could have been avoided"

"Yes, Anya, we are all quite aware of that" Giles said tiredly, rubbing his unseeing eyes, "but the fact remains these things have happened and do need to be resolved. I would personally have thought you were impatient to rid Xander of his demon problems so that he might come home to you"

"Of course I want Xander back!" Anya jumped in immediately, disliking the implication that her feelings for Xander might not be true, "I miss my sweet, funny Xander" she sighed longingly, "especially the sexual pleasure he gives me but it's more than that" she realised, "I miss his smile, and the way he holds me after sex when we fall asleep together. I miss his stupid jokes, and the musty smell of his basement...my God Giles it's just terrible! I think I love him!" she complained suddenly.

"Er, and this is a bad thing?" the Watcher ventured, really not sure what to say in such a situation as this.

"It's...different" Anya frowned, "I don't know how it happened. I mean one minute it's all about the sex and how great the orgasms are but...now I actually care. I care about him and I don't like to think that he's in pain or in trouble...it's a strange and unsettling feeling" she decided.

"Love often is, Anya" Giles told her with a smile that meant he knew only too well how she felt, "It's seldom easy or straight-forward, but it can be a wonderful thing"

The serious and yet odd conversation was interrupted by what sounded like a herd of small elephants coming down the stairs. It turned out in fact to be Buffy and Spike, followed by Joyce at a more sedate pace. What surprised Anya (and indeed would have surprised Giles too if he could see) was that the little Slayer and vampire looked so very unlike themselves.

"You have different clothes" she observed as they stood a few feet away from her, exceedingly wary of getting too close to the ex-demon they had secretly dubbed Evil-Anya.

Buffy was now wearing a little white T-shirt with frills at the sleeves and pale pink dungarees with Hello Kitty on the front. Next to her, it was a shock to see Spike out of uniform black with occasional red. Instead he wore little dark blue jeans and a paler blue T-shirt that matched his eyes.

"Now you two go and play and I'll just be here with Giles and Anya if you need me, okay?" Joyce told the kids who scampered off to their hiding place under the table again.

Buffy flipped her hair over her shoulder and looked over at Spike.

"Do you think I'm pretty?" she asked him matter-of-factly. He studied her, head tilted to one side before has nodded and smiled at her.

"Very pretty" he agreed, "You're my pretty Slayer-Bint" he told her making her giggle.

"Boys can't be pretty" she said after a moment, "but I like your new stuff too" she told him, "Blue is one of my favourite colours"

"I think my eyes are blue" Spike said thoughtfully, unable to remember precisely what his face looked like and finding it strange, "Are they blue?"

Buffy shuffled over to him, getting exceptionally close in order to get a better look at his eyes.

"Uh-huh" she smiled, "They're nice blue" she decided, "Kind of pretty blue"

Spike felt a strange feeling when Buffy leaned in so close to him. It was like the memories that no longer fitted in his head, but he knew he just liked her being close to him and in a moment that he'd never be able to explain he leant towards Buffy and put his lips to hers.

A moment later they both pulled back and she looked strangely at him before she smiled, her grin soon turning into a giggle.

"You kissed me" she said, as if to check that he knew what he'd done. Spike couldn't help but smirk when she seemed to be embarrassed by it.

"Gonna marry you one day" he told her, "Blokes kiss girls they're gonna marry" he nodded, not certain how he knew it, he just did.

There was a strange moment of silence before Buffy scrambled across the floor to fetch the crayons and paper they'd been drawing with before. She liked Spike a lot, and when he kissed her she got this funny feeling in her stomach that she vaguely recognised but didn't truly understand. Buffy didn't like things she didn't understand, it was confusing and not nice. Drawing was fun though, she understood that so she encouraged Spike to join her in that activity for a while, having no idea what the grown ups were doing beyond the tablecloth.

-

"...so I hold the personal item, say the incantation and then sprinkle this dust on the map" Anya was explaining to Joyce, gripping a ring Buffy had earlier identified as belonging to her best friend, "There should be a little light wherever Willow is"

Joyce nodded that she understood and somehow her hand found it's way into Rupert's as they sat together on the couch. Anya knelt on the other side of the coffee table, held the ring in her hand and closed her eyes to chant. Moments later her eyes opened, and she poured something that Joyce could only describe as 'magic dust' into one hand, sprinkling it over the map of Southern California.

Two pairs of eyes darted over the area before Anya pointed to a tiny glowing spot.

"Looks like you were right Giles" she was loathed to admit, "Willow didn't go far, she's somwhere in LA"

"That still gives us quite a large area to cover" the Watcher frowned, "I think perhaps a map of the town itself might be useful, try the spell again"

"Should I call Xander?" Joyce worried, "He'd at least be headed in the right direction, I have no idea where he might be now"

"Good idea, Joyce" Giles agreed, squeezing her hand before she got up and headed for the phone.

'Willow isn't far away', she was thinking as she dialled, she could be found in just a day or two and then the spell could be reversed. As great as that would be for Xander and dear Rupert who she was growing increasingly fond of the more time they spent together, it would mean her children would be children no more, but her grown up daughter and a semi-dangerous vampire. She really wasn't looking forward to that at all.

To Be Continued...

A/N2 : Well, I hope the bath scene wasn't too disappointing. I know some of you were expecting/hoping for something else, but I didn't want to be accused of copying the other fics I know exist with the naked kids asking what body parts were, etc. Hope you liked this chapter anyway, and that I'll get more positive responses from you. I will try to update again soon.