Disclaimer: I'm sure by now you realize I own nothing…yet.

Chapter 8

"Hey Giles!" The Slayer barged into his unlocked apartment, "Anybody home?"

No one answered. Due to the many bizarre occurrences in Sunnydale; this concerned Buffy, who began to cautiously search the premises for her lost watcher.

"Giles!" The blonde searched the kitchen, the den, and the foyer with no result. However, she did note the cereal scattered over the floor, as well as the ink-blots on Rupert's usually spotless research papers, not to mention the ripped-up pillow on the couch. Something was definitely not right.

"Giles?" She tried again; still no response, "Gi-les; where are you?"

At this unusual pronunciation of the name, the girl heard a small giggle coming from the bedroom.

"Gi-aww!" The Slayer halted her repetition, overcome with emotion at the cute scene before her.

The graying man lay sprawled on his bed, one leg dangling off it, with one arm around his chest and the other spread out next to him, as if to hold a small person. This 'small person' was, in fact, very much awake, holding in her tiny palm a black marker.

"You are such a cutie!" Buffy moved to sit beside the child, "What are you doing?"

"Just dwawing." She smiled innocently.

"Cool." The college girl affirmed. Then, remembering the day's earlier events, she asked, "Hey; do you know where Willow is? I haven't seen her sin-"

"Willow is gone." The red-head frowned, "And she's nevew coming back. She's banished-fowevew."

"I see…" The two, or, rather, three, sat there quietly for a moment, the youngest of them squinting her emerald eyes at the Slayer, as if summing her up.

"So; is Giles babysitting you?"

The little girl nodded. "Yes. Gwanpa's babysitting me. But Mommy will be back soon." The four-year-old assured her, "She went shopping."

"Shopping?" Eyeing the child's torn clothes, Buffy could guess why, "So; what's you name kiddo?"

"Kiddo' is not my name." The preschooler clarified, "It's Awat."

"Awat?"

"Yeah; that's my Mommy's name spelled backwawds."

"Oh, okay." The blonde was seriously confused. What kind of an aunt did Willow have? Who names their kid their own name backwards? No wonder her best friend had such a…unique personality.

"I know you." The so-called 'Awat' claimed, suddenly.

"Sorry?"

"You'we Buffy. Auntie Buffy."

"Auntie? What the Hell-I mean, heck, are you talking about?" The Slayer tried to clean up her language around the youngster.

"You'we not my weal auntie-because Mommy doesn't have any weal sistews. But you'we Mommy's fwiend, and hew fwiends awe ouw family. Like Gwanpa Giles."

This was seriously weird. How did this kid know anything about Buffy-or Giles, for that matter? Was Willow just trying to play some sort of joke on her? That didn't seem like her; using innocent children to help with her dirty work. But who was this girl's mother? Maybe the Slayer did know this 'Tawa'. From high school maybe…or college…

"Hi guys! I'm home!" A second blonde, whose arms were filled with bags, entered the apartment.

"Mommy!" The red-head rushed into the woman's outstretched arms.

"Tara?" Buffy asked in disbelief, following 'Awat' out of the bedroom.

"B-Buffy? W-what are you d-doing here?"

"That's exactly what I'd like to know." The yawning Englishman joined the party, rubbing his glasses.

"Oh, I-I just came in a few minutes ago-the door was unlocked so I just…what happened to your face?" The Slayer was indeed correct; there was something different about Rupert.

"I'm sure I don't know what you mean." The man said, clueless, as he put on his wire-frame glasses, "Did someone turn the lights out?"

The blondes struggled to retain giggles.

"What? What is it?" The watcher asked, feeling his way across the room.

"Take off the glasses." The shorter of the students suggested.

Giles did so. "Ah. Much better." Then, viewing the blackened lenses, "What the devil happened!" Sniffing the dark coating, he noted, "It smells like ink."

Willow giggled, dropping the offending object to reveal two dirty, darkened, hands. Picking up the writing utensil, Buffy read aloud, "Ebony Black permanent marker."

Uh oh. Giles was not going to like this. Not one bit.

"Did you say, um, permanent?" Tara nodded, timidly.

"Well then, at least all she drew on were my lenses." The guilty child started shaking her head.

"No-that wasn't all I dwew."

"Hm?" The elder man checked his pants, and his shirt; all were unblemished. However, he noticed the small spurts of laughter from the assorted girls in front of him, "What?"

The Slayer pointed to his face.

"Bad girl Willow. That was a very mean thing to do to your Grandpa." Tara whispered harshly into the kid's ear.

"You can't be serious-" At which point, Giles caught his reflection in a nearby mirror.

His usually debonair and, in his opinion, striking face was now tainted by a curled, badly-drawn, moustache, as well as a triangular-ish goatee, and assorted scribbles on his cheeks and forehead. Buffy couldn't believe she didn't notice it when she saw him sleeping earlier. On the bright side, though, in a slightly charming manner, there was a small note on the side of his jaw that read 'I love U Granpa'. Regardless; the watcher was not amused.

Trying his best to keep his cool, the graying man walked up to the woman holding the criminal, and said curtly, "She's your daughter; I expect you to punish her accordingly."

"Daughter?" Buffy questioned, knowing she had missed something, "What's going on?

"W-well-"

"I'm not quite sure-"

"S-she just came into my room-"

"-they got here a number of hours ago-"

"-and I-I wasn't sure w-where she was-"

"-you see, they're having these memories-"

"-I n-needed help, s-so I came here-"

"Stop it!" The Slayer interrupted, unable to follow both at once, "Let me get this straight-this is Willow's cousin; Awat, who she got stuck babysitting, but left with me, but when I lost her she found someone that looked similar to her mother; which would be Tara, and then you came to Giles so he could babysit while you went to class?"

"W-what?" Tara hadn't quite followed her friend's botched story.

"Pardon?"

"T-that's not really what h-happened."

"For all intents and purposes; this is Tara's daughter." The single man in the room explained, gaining a quizzical look from Willow's 'mother'.

"Really? You had a kid before coming here?" The blonde turned to the woman holding 'Awat'.

"S-sort of, I-I guess…"

"And she's visiting for an unspecific amount of time. Thus, I offered my babysitting service so that Tara could make it to class."

"O-or shop." The witch glanced at her many purchases.

"Okay." The Slayer begrudgingly bought into her mentor's story, "But that still doesn't explain why that kid looks like mini-Willow."

"M-my ex-boyfriend," Buffy's eyes grew wide, "B-before I realized what I-I was, looked a-a lot like her."

"So; where's the large-size Willow?"

"Well, um, you see-" Tara cut him off.

"S-she's visiting her g-grandma." The student smiled at her quick thinking, "S-she's not sure w-when she'll be b-back."

"That still doesn't explain why she didn't tell me." The stubborn girl insisted.

"S-she was very sick-her grandmother, I mean-and she d-didn't want to w-waste any time letting people kn-now."

"Oh. I should probably call her-"

"No! The witch and watcher cried simultaneously.

"I'm sure Willow won't want to be, um, disturbed during this, um, sad time with her kin."

"You're right." Buffy agreed, "I'll just talk to her when she gets back."

Tara heaved a sigh of relief.

"So; did you really name your kid Awat?" The Slayer changed the subject.

"W-what?" The witch hadn't thought of any name but the child's true one.

"Awat-or, Arat, I guess. She said her name was the same as yours only backwards." Buffy smiled at the red-head.

"H-her name i-is…" Tara considered this for a moment. She knew she wanted a family someday, and, no offense to her girlfriend; there was no way she was naming them anything remotely resembling either of their first names. But their middle names-wasn't Willow's- "Danielle. Her name is Danielle McClay."

"It is?" The child looked up at her 'mother' quizzically. Then, deciding that the name was definitely cooler than her own real or made up ones, she amended, "Oh yeah-I knew that."

"Glad to hear it." Buffy chuckled. For a kid that wasn't related to Willow; she sure acted like it. The Slayer took a moment to view Tara and her self-proclaimed daughter, while Giles rushed to the lavatory to clean his face. The two looked natural together-but the blonde witch had always been the motherly type, so that wasn't a surprise. It was just weird that they didn't look anything ali-oh, wait. That wasn't right. Upon closer inspection, Buffy noticed the girl's blonde highlights, and the turquoise color of her eyes; that girl was totally Tara's-you just had to look closely. The young woman in question was noticing these things too, and, knowing that the little girl had been nothing but a small Willow-doppelganger when she left, was quite perturbed.

"It won't come off." Giles muttered miserably, leaving the bathroom to join his guests, "Naughty, naughty girl!" He shook his finger at the little monst-adorable child in Tara's arms. The preschooler just laughed.

"Tara, please; do something to keep her in line. Without discipline you'll end up with a disrespectful, spoiled-"

""You wouldn't be talking about little old me, would you?" The Slayer interjected. Rupert decided not to answer her.

Nonetheless, the watcher was right; Willow did need to be scolded. "Danielle," The new mother began, calmly, "don't you ever do that to Grandpa again. Okay?" Unbeknownst to Tara, she happened to sound like another, far-off adult that the child remembered; only this one would hit her instead of just yelling. Thus, filled with these frightening thoughts, the poor girl began to cry.

"M-maybe I was t-too harsh."

"Not at all. All children need to learn to behave sometime." The elder man reassured her.

Now, some people can stand crying children, possibly even extremely loud and shrill ones like 'Danielle', but Ms. Summers was not one of those people. Not if she could help it, at least.

"Oh! I just remembered-I have a class in fifteen minutes! I'll see you later! By Dani!" The blonde hurriedly waved as she cleared out.

After the door had slammed shut; Tara turned to Giles.

"So; w-what was that a-about?"

"What was what about?"

"Y-you said Willow w-was my kid. W-why didn't you tell her the truth?" The witch questioned.

"Well, what with the, um, upcoming apocalypse, and Glory on the loose, I thought it would, um, be best if she wasn't worried by an additional crisis. Don't you?" The watcher asked sincerely.

"I-I guess so…" Tara agreed, still holding the squirming preschooler, "But w-what am I s-supposed to do? I-I can't keep her."

"And why not?" Rupert was skeptical, "I'm sure there is more than enough space in your dorm for the two of you; and no one should complain about it if they don't find out."

"I-I need to go to my classes; where-"

"As usual," the elder man interrupted, "I am at your service. For babysitting, that is."

"Okay." The student answered with a newfound confidence. Maybe this whole mini-Willow thing wouldn't be an issue at all. Thus, gathering her things, Tara prepared to leave the apartment, one arm full of shopping bags, and the other firmly grasping Willow.

"Oh; and there's one more thing." The gray-headed guy stopped her, "I believe that this whole thing was caused by some mistake in a spell Willow performed. You did mention she was doing something magic-related when you last saw her, did you not?"

The blonde woman recalled this section of their conversation, nodding her head.

"Then I should like it if you checked her room-discreetly, of course. I shouldn't want you distressing Buffy."

"O-of course." Tara responded. She would never dream of causing her friend any discontent. However, Willow was way more important to her, and with every moment, she was changing. What had become of the confident child that had so arrogantly drawn on Giles' face? She seemed placid now-almost shy. What in goddess's name was going on? The witch, obviously, had no idea. But if it meant bugging the already perturbed Slayer for details; she would do it.