A/N : Thanx to; sheilamarie, Moonjava, vanilagigglez, spuffy4eva, Freezyboncoolipants, lil-leti, Daniel Wesley Rydell, spk, marykaitlyn, Moluvsnumber17, demonica mills, and Lady Starlight, for all the great reviews.
(For disclaimer, etc. - see chapter 1)
Chapter 6
Joyce wasn't really sure what to expect when she arrived home in the early afternoon. She'd actually had fun at the mall, picking out the cutest little outfits for all five miniaturised Scoobies, including her own daughter. It was an expensive business but she could afford a couple of outfits each for them, only hoping that the spell would get reversed before they needed any more new things.
Having Buffy and Spike as kids before had been fun, but ultimately hard work, especially with Rupert being blind at the time. Now she had him and Spike and Dawn to help her, but there were five small children to worry about, and worry was precisely what she did as she stood outside the front door and listened to the yelling and crying from within.
Opening the door she came face to face with what appeared to be a war-zone. Dawn was attempting to pull Buffy out from under the table but her little Slayer grip was so strong the table was actually being dragged little by little across the expensive flooring. Anya had decided it was time for another round of Chase Xander Through The House, and he was screaming like a girl everytime she came within three feet of him. Willow and Tara were relatively quiet and still, although Joyce was fairly certain that her various paperweights and such on the mantle shelf didn't usually float around of their own accord.
"Um, girls" she said carefully as she put her bags by the couch and came to kneel down at Willow and Tara's level, "Maybe you could not float Joyce's expensive things because you know it makes me very nervous" she told them, very careful not to upset them.
She knew from spending much time helping out with research of spells and such that to a witches mood could greatly affect their power. If she made these kids angry or upset there was no telling what might happen and she really did love the small vase that the girls were currently concentrating on. She sighed as it was gently set back down on the shelf and the two little witches looked at the floor.
"We're sorry, Mrs Summers" Willow said, looking shameful, as Tara tried to hide behind her friend.
"Oh I'm not mad, kids" she promised them, "It's just, I'd feel better if you only floated the non breakable things, or maybe you could just take a rest from the floating altogether for a while, okay?"
"Okay" the red-head nodded, still gripping onto Tara's hand as they ran off to find some other game to play that didn't involve floating things, for a while at least.
"Two down" Joyce sighed as she got back to her feet and was almost run down by little Xander who came pelting across the room.
"Honestly you two, where do you find the energy for all this running?" she asked as Xander dodged behind her legs and Anya stood in front, the two of them looking around either side of their friends mother.
"I'm a very active person, in lots of different ways" Anya smiled sweetly, "I'm also flexible and have great stamina" she went on, "I think these will be useful qualities when I'm old enough to pleasure men in a sexual way" she grinned, and as much as Joyce would like to snap at her and tell her these were not suitable things for a young lady to be saying, she just looked too innocent and adorable to be mad at.
In a moment the two were off again, and Joyce wondered if perhaps Xander really did want to get away from Anya at all. Perhaps his aim was to get caught in the end, maybe he just didn't know it yet?
"Mom!" Dawn called, catching her attention, "Tell Buffy she has to let go of the table leg" she whined as she tried to prise the little Slayers grip off the wood.
"I wanna stay here!" she protested, "You can't make me move, you can't! I'm the Slayer! The Chosen One! You aren't anything!" she said, sounding quite vicious and as much as Dawn knew it was just some lame kiddy thing to say, it kind of hurt. She let go of Buffy who hid herself back under the table, seemingly unaware of the pain she'd caused as Dawn ran up the stairs almost in tears.
Joyce knelt down by the table and peeked under the edge of the cloth to see her daughter.
"Buffy, come out of there, this instant!" she said, in full mother tone. The little blonde looked at her for a moment before doing as she was told and coming out from under the table.
"Now, I want you to tell me why you were under there and why you wouldn't come out when Dawn asked you to" Joyce said, looking her daughter in the eye.
"Spikey's mean" she said glumly, "He doesn't love me anymore, and he's a mean, bad man, and I hate him" she said, half way between anger and tears.
"Oh sweetheart" Joyce sighed, feeling awful for her child who must be so mixed up right now.
She was a twenty year old young woman in essence but forced into the body and mind of a six year old. She couldn't comprehend why her boyfriend didn't want to be close to her anymore, though her mother knew only too well. Kids didn't see the inappropriate factors that adults did, they were just too innocent for that.
"Buffy, Spike does love you" Joyce assured her, "He loves you very much, just like I do" she told her, giving her a hug, "Don't ever doubt that, sweetheart"
"He said Tara was pretty" Buffy sniffed as she mother hugged her, "Then he said Anya was the prettiest girl here" she managed to say before she burst into noisy sobs, "If he loved me he wouldn't say that"
Joyce had no idea what she was supposed to say to that so she just continued to hold her baby girl in her arms, rubbing her back and making soothing sounds until her tears ceased some time later.
"Y'know honey, what Spike said might have made you mad or upset" Joyce said gently, "but you really had no reason to yell at your sister, she was trying to help you, and be nice to you"
"I didn't mean to yell at her" Buffy shook her head solemnly, "Is she crying too?" she checked, not looking at all impressed by her own behaviour.
"Yes, I think she is" her mother nodded and Buffy looked pained for a moment before smiling.
"I'm gonna go tell her I'm sorry" she said as she bolted for the stairs and scrambled her way up. Joyce was also smiling as she got to her feet, she'd raised her girls pretty well, or so it seemed.
"Oh bloody hell!" the loud cursing from the kitchen caught her attention and she entered the next room to find Spike trying to get raw egg off the tiled floor, his coat discarded over the stools by the counter and the black T-shirt he wore covered in whiteish patches of what might've been flour or a similar substance.
"So, I guess lunch wasn't a success" Joyce said from the doorway, trying to force down the smirk that wanted to appear on her face.
"Not exactly" Spike sighed, as he turned to look at her. Realising how ridiculous he must look, but of course unable to see for himself. He almost laughed too, especially when he saw how difficult it was for Joyce to keep a straight face.
"Soddin' hard work bein' a babysitter" the vampire complained, "How these young chits of fourteen and such manage it I'll never bloody know" he sighed, "Got a new found respect for the little buggers though"
"Try being a Mom" Joyce rolled her eyes as she walked over to the sink and picked up a sponge to wipe the counter down with, "I guess I really should've thought it through more before I left a thirteen year old and an inexperienced baby-sitter in charge of five small children with various superpowers" she smiled as she made a start on cleaning up the destruction Spike had managed to make and all without actually preparing anything edible.
"You'd think after over a century of living I could handle a couple of temper tantrums, and a little cooking" Spike scoffed, "but no, if there's no bloody violence involved, seems I'm pretty much useless" he sighed almost sadly as he helped Joyce tidy up.
"When it comes to loving and caring for my daughter, I think you're very good at that" she told him seriously, a hand on his arm, "You're a wonderful man, Spike, and just because you not exactly a grade A chef or a perfect baby-sitter, it doesn't mean you're useless"
"Knew there was a reason I liked calling you Mum" he smiled at her.
"I feel honoured that you do" she assured him, "And on that note, I wondered if you'd take a little mother's advice from me" she asked and Spike looked curiously at her, "Buffy feels like you don't want her around, which I know to a certain degree is true right now and I do understand why, of course I do" she told him, "but Buffy doesn't understand, there's no way that she could. Do you think you could try to be nice to her, and not ignore her quite so much? It breaks my heart to see her so upset, Spike"
"Doesn't thrill me either" he sighed, "She cried, didn't she?" he checked, already knowing it was true. His finally tuned hearing had heard her sobbing into Joyce's arms beyond the door. Though he'd tried to ignore it, he couldn't.
"I'll do what I can" he promised, "but right now, any suggestions on what we feed these little sods...er, delightful children" he corrected himself off Joyce's look.
"Well, given the lack of things to work with in the refridgerator and the wanton destruction of my kitchen" she smiled slyly, "I think on this one occasion we could order in" she smiled, "Maybe pizza?"
"Did someone say pizza?" little Xander stopped running as he came in through the kitchen door, causing Anya to run into his back and consequently fall on her butt.
"Ow! You made me fall down!" she complained, over-dramatically as she got a hold of Xander's arm and attempted to pull herself up.
"Sorry" the little boy said, looking worried that he really might have hurt her.
For all the running away from her he did, he did like Anya and wouldn't want to think he'd hurt her.
"I'm okay" she admitted, smiling when he voluntarily got hold of her hand and didn't let go just yet.
"Oh please" Spike groaned, "If those two are gonna get all googley eyed at each other I plan on evacuating before I heave"
"Spike" Joyce said, giving him a look, "Play nice"
"Yes, Mum" he rolled his eyes as he went back to cleaning up whilst she called the pizza place.
"Dawnie?" Buffy called to her sister as she pushed the bedroom door open, "I'm sorry, Dawnie" she told the older-looking girl back who was currently laying on her bed with her back to the door.
"Go away" Dawn snapped, though it was difficult to ignore the childish little voice of her sister, especially since she was apologising for upsetting her.
"Talk to me, Dawnie" Buffy complained, scrambling up onto the bed with her sister and bouncing around until she got her attention.
"Stop it!" the brunette complained but the little Slayer was having too much fun now and refused to give up her game, giggling until Dawn couldn't help but laugh too.
"Y'know I think you might be more fun like this after all" she smiled, "A little thoughtless sometimes but I guess you didn't mean to be"
"I love you, Dawnie" Buffy told her with a grin, throwing herself at her and hugging her tight, "You're my sister, the bestest sister in the whole world ever ever ever"
Dawn felt like crying again at that, but this time from how kind and sweet Buffy's words were. They didn't say things like that to each other when Buffy was her normal self, they'd sort of grown past it somehow.
"I love you too" Dawn assured the little girl as she hugged her back, and though she was regretting her wish in some ways, in others it was turning out pretty good. At least she felt wanted, needed, and loved by her family right now.
"Girls!" Joyce called up the stairs, "We're ordering pizza for lunch if you're hungry"
The Summers girls soon found hugging to be highly unimportant when pizza was mentioned and they pelted down the stairs to join the rest of the gang.
To Be Continued...