Fanfiction: Throwback
Throwback: Chapter One
Cordelia filed her nails, thinking that perhaps a nice, long paid vacation of the psychotic-murderess-free type was just what she needed.
"Hey, Book Boy," she said, addressing Wesley over her nail file.
Wesley looked at her, his I'm-British-and-Perturbed look clear on his face.
"Yes?" he answered dryly.
"Can you answer the phone?" Cordelia asked, wriggling her nails demonstratively and then beginning to apply polish.
"It's not ringing," Wes replied.
"It will," Cordy replied, looking at him as if her were mentally challenged. "Law of nature. Wet nails yields ringy phone."
Sure enough, a moment later, the phone rang and Cordelia gestured impatiently towards it. "Make with the answering, I-find-Ancient-Texts-So-Fascinating Guy."
Wesley glared at her, adjusted his glasses, and answered the phone.
"Angel Investigations," he said. Wes immediately fell silent, listening for several minutes. "Excellent," he said finally. "Thank you. This will be very helpful."
Cordelia rolled her eyes. As far as she could tell, this was Wesley's version of talking dirty.
Hanging up the phone, Wes walked back over to the book and made a note in the margin with his ink pen.
He grinned, very impressed with himself. "I've just mastered this protection spell," he said. "That was a colleague calling to confirm my translation."
"So we'll be safe from the s-l-a-y-e-r in the basement?" Cordelia asked.
Wes looked down at her. "I doubt she can hear you, Cordelia," he said, "and Faith can, in fact, spell the word slayer."
Cordelia ignored him. "So the spell de-psycho-fies her?" she asked.
"Not exactly," Wes said. "She maintains her state of mind, her basic personality, but it will surround her with an anti-violence shield, an aura of innocence if you will."
"Will she still be the mayor-ess of slutville?" Cordelia asked.
Wesley shrugged. "We can only hope so," he said, the reference flying straight over Cordy's head as she started painting the nails on her other hand.
Wes spoke the words to the spell firmly, his pronunciation wobbling only on the last phrase. He closed the book triumphantly. He was sure one minor emphasis mistake would not render the spell useless.
From downstairs, the two heard a very loud pitched scream, and they each grabbed a weapon and rushed down.
"Way to go on the spell front, Skippy," Cordelia said.
"We have no evidence that anything has gone wrong with my spell," Wesley replied. Then he gestured toward the elevator door. "We open it on the count of three," he said, nervous that they could see nothing from this angle.
"One, two, three..." the two threw open the door and ran out, weapons held high. They didn't make the most intimidating of pictures.
There, standing at the edge of the room, was a little girl of about four years old, with dark hair and sullen eyes, standing with her arms crossed over her chest. Her entire body was completely engulfed in a black leather number.
Next to her, holding his shin, was a little boy with solemn expression on his face of about the same age, his small body dwarfed by a large black t-shirt.
"She kicked me!" the little boy said, outraged. "And Da says never to hit a girl, even if she's ugly and deserves it! Not even if she kicks you or kisses you or nothing." The little boy glowered in the little girl's general direction.
"I'm not going to kiss you, boy wonder," the little girl said scornfully. "I'm never going to kiss any boy ever."
"I take it the answer to the slutville question is no then," Cordelia muttered.
Wesley looked at her, a puzzled expression on his face.
"Don't you get it?" she asked, amazed at how dense he was being. "Why don't you say hello to Evidence and That Something Has Gone Wrong With Your Spell," she said, indicating the two children.
"My name's not Evidence!" the little boy said, a brooding expression settling over his face. "It's Liam."
"Oh dear," Wesley said. "Angel."
Cordelia nodded. She turned to the little girl, he now had her hands on her hips. "What's your name, sweetie?" she asked, though she knew quite well what the answer was going to be.
"What's it to you?" the child asked, narrowing her eyes.
"Oh dear," Wes said again. "Faith."
Throwback: Chapter Two
As the two children eyed each other suspiciously, Wesley rubbed his temples slightly. "Oh dear," he said again.
Cordelia shot him an annoyed look. "The oh-dearing," she said, "not helping, Wesley."
"Wesley?" the little girl said, breaking into a fit of giggles. "That's a funny name." For the moment, the child had lost her tough edge, and Cordelia had to admit that despite the tangled mass of dark hair and the deep circles under her eyes, she was a very cute little girl.
The little boy smirked. "You're kind of funny looking too," he said, unblinking, no malice in his little face as he tilted it to the side to study Wesley. Then he turned to look at Cordelia. "You're pretty," he said, melting her heart with his little boy smile.
"Long hair," Faith said simply, her little fingers wanting to touch it, but not allowing the desire to show on her face.
Cordelia beamed at the children. "You know," she said lightly. "I think I might like them better this way."
An hour later, Cordelia wasn't so sure about that. She'd managed to fit them both in some children's clothes she found in a storage box, but Faith was less than happy with her clothes, and little Liam was a streaker.
As he ran by, shedding his clothes for the fifth time and leaving Wesley cursing in his wake, Faith scratched herself viciously. "It itches," she said, glaring at Cordelia darkly.
"Beauty is pain," Cordelia said.
Little Faith wrinkled her forehead, taking in Cordelia's words with a little skepticism. A moment later, Faith was trying to wriggle out of her clothes as well. Cordy took a deep breath.
"This is so not happening," she said to herself, but then she took a deep breath and looked sternly at Little Faith, reaching out and grabbing the wiggling little girl's arm.
"The clothes stay on," she said firmly.
"Says who?" Faith asked, jerking her arm out of Cordelia's hand.
"Says me," Cordelia said, putting her face right next to the little girl's. "And you don't want to make me mad."
Faith carefully considered the woman's words, and then she shrugged and simply walked away, the weapons case catching her eye.
"Wow," she said. "That's a lot of stuff. Can I play?"
Cordelia seriously considered giving the child a weapon. If she happened to hurt herself before they could turn her back, then the world was simply short one psycho rogue slayer.
As Faith stood on her tiptoes to get a better look at the weapons, her tiny mouth open just a bit in childhood wonder, Cordelia knew that that wasn't an option. Neither child had memories of the adults they had been. She wouldn't hold the girl responsible for the woman's mistake.
"Young man, if you don't sit still right this minute, you'll earn yourself a solid thrashing," Wesley promised the little boy weakly.
Liam eyed the man, trying to decide if he was serious. It gave Wes just enough time to wrangle him into some clothes, a red blush covering the former Watcher's face. Wesley wasn't sure if he would ever be able to look at adult Angel with a straight face again.
"Would you really thrash me?" Liam asked, his voice merely curious and not the least bit intimidated.
Cordelia watched the exchange with a small, wry grin on her face until she felt a small tug on the leg of her black capris. She looked down, and little Faith simply crooked a finger at her, indicating that the woman should bend over.
Cordy knelt down, bringing herself to Faith's level. "Don't let him hurt Liam," the little girl whispered fiercely, her eyes dark with something Cordelia didn't want to understand. Instinctively, she squeezed the little girl in an impromptu hug.
Faith stared at her, shocked, before backing up a step or two. Her little arms crossed instinctively over her chest, but the look on her face seemed to Cordelia to be vulnerable.
"Don't worry about Liam," Cordelia replied. "If it comes down to it, my money says he can take Wesley no problem."
Wesley shot Cordelia an irritated look. "I heard that," he said.
"Meant for you to," Cordy said lightly.
Liam appeared to be sizing Wesley up, his little arms on his hips.
Faith stood frozen to the ground, looking at Cordelia with the same poignantly bewildered and cautious look on her face.
"I could take him," the little girl said, finally speaking. "He looks like a pussy to me."
"Faith!" Wes and Cordelia both said, wondering where the child had picked up the language. It occurred to Wesley that for someone who had once been her Watcher, he knew starkingly little about Faith's background.
Completely unperturbed, the child approached Liam. "Come on, Liam," she ordered. "I'll show you the sharp and shiny things over here."
Wesley's gaze followed the children as they walked to the weapons case. "Oh dear," he said.
THROWBACK: Chapter Three
Cordelia looked up from polishing her nails. She tilted her head to the side, and it occurred to her that something was wrong. Carefully, she listened. She heard nothing, and then it struck her that the silence probably wasn't a good sign. In the two weeks since Wesley had botched the spell and turned Faith and Angel into children, there had never once been silence in the office.
Sighing, Cordelia put down her nail polish. "Okay, you little ankle biters," she said, standing up, "where are you and what are you doing wrong?"
For a moment there was silence, then a loud series of thumping sounds, and then silence again.
"Don't make me come down there," she yelled toward the basement, knowing that she was already well on her way 'down there.' Silently she cursed Wesley and his I-have-to-find-the-reversal-spell excuse for going out for the afternoon and leaving her at the mercy of Seek and Destroy, the two four year old wonders.
As she rode the elevator down, she could hear frantic whispering and the clanging of metal. When she stepped out of the elevator, Cordy was greeted by two innocent and smiling faces.
"What are you two doing?" she asked, narrowing her eyes at them and holding her hand in front of her, hoping her nail polish would dry before some type of physical intervention was needed to stop the two children from killing each other or getting themselves killed.
"Nothing," Faith and Liam replied sweetly at once.
"And I'm Christina Ricci," Cordelia said sarcastically. The sarcasm was lost on the children.
"Okay, Christina Ricci," Liam said, grinning up at her winningly. "I'm Liam O'Connor." He stuck his little hand out to shake hers.
Cordelia looked down at him and tried not to giggle at the little boy's confident stance. Little Angel was such a ham.
Cordelia turned her attention to the four-year-old Faith. "What?" Cordy said, "No witty-slash-sarcastic remarks from you too?"
Faith smiled at her and batted her eye lashes innocently. Cordelia groaned. If there was one thing Faith was not at any age, it was innocent. "We're just playing nicely, Cordy," little Faith said.
Cordy noticed that Faith was holding a single hand behind her back.
"What's in your hand?" she asked automatically.
Faith shifted her eyes side to side a little. "What hand?" she asked, moving backwards. Cordelia advanced on her.
"That hand," she said, gesturing with the wet nails.
Liam looked at Faith and knew that Cordelia was about to find them out, so he did the only thing he could think of to do that would distract her. "Where do babies come from?" he blurted out.
Cordelia took a deep breath. "This is so not happening," she told herself. Faith and Liam both looked up at her, wide eyed. "Ask Wesley," she told them.
In a lightning quick move, Faith thrust something under the bed. Cordelia, silently swearing to make Wes pay for leaving her with baby-sitting duty, crouched down to look under the bed.
"No!" both children yelled.
Sighing at the fact that she was ruining her manicure, Cordelia pulled out a large broad sword from underneath the bed. She glared at the children.
"I swear you two are the most violent children I've ever met. If it isn't 'stab this' or 'slash that,' or 'kick those,' it's playing with heavy metal artillery," she muttered, before remembering that she was supposed to be the adult. "What's the rule about weapons?" she asked.
"We're not supposed to touch them," Liam volunteered cheerfully, not looking the least bit guilty.
Cordelia looked at Faith. The little girl looked down sullenly and wouldn't look back up.
"Faith?" Cordelia said.
"I hate your damn rules," Faith muttered darkly, and as soon as the words were out of her mouth, the little girl's body began to tremble just slightly. Cordelia didn't notice, but Liam did.
"I won't let anything bad happen to you, Faith," he promised softly.
Faith backed herself into a corner and sunk to the ground. Cordelia tried not to think about the bruises they'd found all over the little girl's body the first week, bruises that hadn't been on the woman's body, bruises that existed in adult Faith as mere memory.
"I don't need your help," Faith told Liam fiercely. "I don't need anyone's help. Never."
Trembling in the corner, her dark hair still in the lopsided pig tails Wesley had struggled to put it in that morning, Faith looked small and vulnerable, her dark eyes flashing. Sighing, Cordelia went and scooped the little girl up into her arms, instinctively cuddling her for a moment.
Faith was stiff in her grasp, but after a moment, the little girl put her arms around Cordelia's neck and rested her head on her shoulders. Cordy could feel the little girl's heart pumping frantically, and she wondered how long it would be before the child would stop getting that frozen, fearful look in her eye.
"I think it's nap time," Cordelia said, and when Liam started complaining, Cordy just sent him a steely glare.
Saying nothing, Liam crossed his arms over his chest and brooded, his expression the exact mirror of the adult Angel's broody look.
After naptime, Cordelia taught the children a new game, entitled Treating Cordelia like a Princess. It didn't catch on as fast as she would have liked, and by the time Wes came home, she had taken to painting the children's fingernails to keep them entertained.
Liam considered his hot pink nails, tilting his head slightly toward the side. He'd gotten used to television and cars in the weeks he'd been in this strange place, but pink nail polish was something altogether new.
"Look!" Faith said, a rare smile flashing across her face, as she held her nails gingerly out for Wesley's inspection.
"Fetching," Wes said, trying not to think about all he'd discovered regarding Faith's past as he looked at the little girl.
"Welcome home, pussy," Liam said to Wes in a jolly voice.
"Liam!" Cordy and Wes both said at the same time. At first, Liam hadn't understood that Faith's name for Wes was a bad word, and once he had, he'd begun using it even more frequently.
Both of them turned to glare at Faith. The two children were such bad influences on each other. Still strangely enamored with her polished nails, Faith paid them no attention at all.
Wesley sighed. He'd been having no luck on the reversal spell. It wasn't a simple matter of using the original spell. Instead, he had to carefully construct a new spell to undo the damage his carelessness had caused.
He felt a little hand pulling on the bottom of his pant leg. He looked down to see Liam grinning up at him. "Where do babies come from?" the little boy asked.
"Oh----"
"Don't say it," Cordy said warningly.
"---dear," Wesley finished.
In the silence that followed, Faith finally stopped looking at her nails and cleared her throat, ready to ask a question of her own. "Wesley," she said clearly, her little voice soft and demanding, "I have a question, too."
Wes looked down at her, his eyebrows raised. "What's your question, Faith?" he asked her warily.
"Are you Cordy's bitch?" Faith asked earnestly.
"Faith!" Wes said. "Language, young lady."
Faith gave him a hurt look. It had been an honest question. Cordelia couldn't help but grin at the little girl. Sometimes, she loved that kid.
After a moment of silence, Liam and Faith both spoke at the same time.
"Well," they said in unison, "are you?"
THROWBACK: Chapter Four
Wesley took a deep breath, his thoughts racing as he wondered how in the world he had gotten himself into this mess. It was dire, worse in fact than any apocalypse he had ever faced. The stakes were incredibly high, the enemy fierce.
Quite honestly, it was all Cordelia's fault. After he'd spent a full day working on the reversal spell, which was still incomplete, she'd suckered him into watching the two little hellions. He refused to refer to them as children. Surely human children couldn't be that much trouble, that incredibly heinously behaved.
That raised an interesting question in Wesley's mind. Were the two, in fact human? Neither had any memories of the lives they'd lived as adults, so it was logical that they would not have retained their powers, and yet there were moments when Wes had his doubts.
Now was one such moment. He'd made the mistake of trying to take the terrible twosome to a reasonable sit-down dinner. Thus far, Liam and Faith had thoroughly thwarted his attempts at civil conversation with supernatural efficiency.
"Liam, your food goes in your mouth, not in Faith's hair," Wes said, trying to push back the pounding headache.
"Says you," Liam replied, borrowing the phrase from Faith. "Pu--"
Wes cut Angel off before he could finish his statement. "Don't even think about it," he said darkly, looking around the restaurant. Liam grinned good naturedly at Wes but said nothing.
Faith sat quietly, ferociously eating her food. Her table manners were atrocious; she always ate as if each bite were her last, but at least she wasn't trying to tear off the table leg and beat someone over the head with it. Wes kept his expression blank, lest he give the children any ideas.
Finishing her food, Faith looked around the restaurant, surveying her territory. "They don't have a playground," she commented, looking fairly disgruntled. "What kind of eating place doesn't have a playground?"
"The kind that doesn't have golden arches," Wes replied, trying to eat his own food, but distracted when Liam picked up and began examining his knife.
Wes stuck his hand out. "Give me the knife, Liam," Wes said.
Liam said nothing, he simply continued gazing at the knife, an contemplative look on his face.
"Give me the knife, Liam," Faith said, her little voice bossy. Liam, grinning charmingly at Wes the entire time, handed the knife to Faith. Faith, her wide eyes innocent as always, sent a cheerful grin in Wesley's general direction.
"Give me the knife, Faith," Wes said, trying to sound stern. He held out his hand. Faith looked at Liam and nudged him in the side. Finally, the little boy caught on.
"Give me the knife, Faith," Liam said. Faith handed him the knife. They both looked at Wesley and broke into helpless giggles.
Wes put his hands on his temples. He was going to quite simply kill Cordelia for leaving him alone with little monsters one and two.
"Give me the knife, Liam," Faith said, her voice rising a little. Liam handed the knife over.
"Give me the knife, Faith," he said, practically shouting. By this time, the two children were both giggling fiercely, and the entire restaurant was watching them. Several other parents with young children sent Wesley disapproving looks.
"That's enough," Wes hissed in a whisper. The children looked at him solemnly.
"That's enough," Faith echoed in a hiss.
"THAT'S ENOUGH!" Liam bellowed. The two children giggled, and Wes was caught halfway in between smiling at their antics and boring a hole in his own head with his salad fork. Those two were completely impossible. Who would have thought Angel and Faith had been such mischievous little children? Right now, brood boy was giggle boy, and the rogue slayer was wearing pigtails and smiling broadly.
Wesley sighed. "I think it's time for us to go," he said, motioning for the check.
"I think it's time for us to go," Faith told Liam seriously.
"I THINK IT'S TIME FOR US TO GO!" Liam yelled for the whole restaurant to hear. Wesley rubbed his temples. The children were obviously having a wonderful time. At least they'd put down the knife. Thank goodness for small favors. Then again, Wes was having trouble actually locating the knife. He sighed and decided to leave well enough alone.
Wesley paid the check and then walked out the door, the two children following in his wake and repeating every word he said.
"That was fun," Faith said, almost breathless with excitement. Wesley looked down at her, surprised. The child took such pleasure in the smallest things. One would almost wager that she'd never sat down in a restaurant before.
"I'm glad you had fun," Wes told Faith. It was dark outside by now, and both of the children were in high spirits. Wes groaned inwardly. He'd never get the two of them to sleep now.
A moment later, three vampires came around the side of the building. They immediately spotted the British man and the two four-year-old children, all of whom they marked immediately as easy prey.
"Look," one said. "It's dinner."
The other simply started towards them.
"Oh dear," Wesley said, reaching into his jacket and pulling out several stakes and a small knife.
"Oh dear," Faith told Liam, still grinning.
"OH DEAR," Liam yelled at the top of his lungs. The vampires looked at him very strangely.
Wesley pushed the children behind him and watched as two more vampires rounded the corner. He muttered an expletive, his eyes darkening. First Faith and then Liam joyfully echoed the expletive. Faith had never heard anyone use that combination of words before.
Behind Wes, the two children wiggled and giggled, and the vampires slowly advanced.
THROWBACK: Chapter Five
Of the five vampires, the shortest appeared to be the spokesman. "Look at the big one," he sneered. "It's going to fight us with its little sticks."
The five vampires laughed.
"Stick and stones may break my bones..." Faith began to recite behind Wesley. He shushed her.
"Let the little girl speak," the vampire commanded. "I like food that talks."
Faith pushed her way in front of Wes.
"What's your name, sweetheart?" the vamp asked.
Faith stared at him, and her stomach clenched with something she didn't understand. There was something wrong with this man, something very wrong. He didn't feel right.
"Cat got your tongue?" another vampire drawled, closing in on them.
"What was that about sticks and stones?" the first vampire asked mockingly. Faith stood on her tiptoes and grabbed two stakes from Wesley's arms. She handed one of them to Liam, who was now standing beside her, looking cheerfully up at the vamps, bits of food still stuck to his cheeks.
"Sticks and stones may break my bones," Faith said calmly, "but I will kick your ass."
Wesley just about choked on his tongue at the little girl's words. She didn't know what she was up against.
"KICK YOUR ASS!" Liam yelled, still playing the game he and Faith had been playing earlier and absolutely tickled that Wesley wasn't scolding them for their language.
Bracing himself for a fight, Wes stepped in front of the children.
The lead vampire turned to the others. "We don't eat until the man is dead," he instructed. "I want the little girl alive."
With those words, all of the vamps roared into action. Two of them went for Wesley at once, and the former watcher surprised them by dodging both of their blows, and neatly thrusting a stake into the chest of one of the vampires.
He exploded into dust, and Faith wrinkled her nose, clearly deep in thought.
The second vamp was not so easily taken, and he knocked Wes back several feet. Looking at the children for a moment, Wesley's heart jumped into his throat when he realized that a vampire had a hold of Liam.
A little girl's scream filled the air, as the lead vampire approached Faith and grabbed her by her pigtails. For a moment, the girl's eyes glossed over, and she looked through the vamp.
In one swift movement, Wesley blocked the vamp's punch and dusted him with the other hand. He lunged toward the children, but the fifth vamp caught him by surprise, wrapping his arms tightly around Wesley's neck, choking him slowly and painfully. The remaining weapons fell from Wesley's hands as he gasped for air and struggled against the powerful arms that held him.
Faith's eyes widened, as she fumbled with the stake in her hands. She didn't know why, but she knew what to do with it, and she surprised the vamp when she kicked out with her left foot, sending him flying to the ground.
Faith grinned. "Fun-fun," she said, her voice violent and child-like at the same time, her dark pigtails swinging back and forth.
Meanwhile, the vampire had knocked Liam's stake out of his hands and to the ground. At a loss for what to do, Liam pulled something shiny from his pants pocket: the knife from earlier at the dinner table.
As he struggled against the vampire, Wesley couldn't help but think that Liam was a little devil to have snuck the knife out of the restaurant. Those children were really something else.
Liam bent his knees, and the vampire that was lunging for him missed, grabbing air. Moving quickly, Liam stabbed the knife through the vampire's foot with great force, pinning the foot firmly to the ground. The vamp roared in pain and fury.
Seeing Wesley in trouble, Faith moved quickly. Picking up one of the stakes, she ran over to the vampire, pig tails swinging behind her. Jumping up in the air, she took aim and stabbed the vampire in the back of the chest. He exploded into dust, just as Wesley managed to twist out of his grasp.
Wes stared at the child, amazed. How had she retained her slayer powers when she'd returned to childhood?
Turning her attention back to Liam, Faith took in air quickly when she saw the lead vampire backhand the little boy to the ground. Wes clenched his jaw and moved fearlessly forward, placing himself in between Liam and the vampire, even though Wes knew quite well that he was weaponless.
Before either the vamp or Wesley could move, a small blur wearing a blur shirt and with dark pigtails hurtled by, knocking the vampire to the ground. Wesley watched open mouthed as the child began beating the vampire viciously, furiously.
"Don't. You. Ever. Hit. My. Liam," the little girl said, her hits very literally tearing the vampire apart. "Don't hit him. Don't hit him. Don't hit him." Her cries became an inhuman-sounding mantra.
Wesley intervened, reaching in to pull Faith off of the vamp and stake him.
On the ground behind him, the little girl hadn't stopped fighting or talking.
"Don't hit. Don't hit. Don't hit," she said fiercely, over and over again, punching the hard ground with her fists, her voice catching in the back of the throat and her hands starting to bleed. She looked like a wild animal: beautiful and out of control.
Wesley walked over to her and grabbed her from behind, holding her firmly even when she began fighting against him.
"Shhhhh," he hushed the child, struggling to contain her manic movements. "It's all right, Faith. It's over, luv."
Faith stopped moving for a moment, and Wes tightened his grip. She looked at him, her eyes still glassed over with the memories she had been lost in.
"Don't hit," she said simply.
Wes looked at her, his heart breaking for the small, angry child. "I won't," he said, wondering why he had never seen the same heartbreaking angriness in the woman.
"Don't worry, Faith," Liam said, picking himself up off of the ground. "Me and Wes and you are all fine. Everything's okay." Liam looked around and grinned boyishly.
He looked up at Wesley, completely unfazed by his brush with the undead. "Can we do that again?" he asked.
"No," Wes said firmly.
"No fair," Faith said, recovering a bit, but still snuggled tight in Wesley's arms.
"You never let us do anything fun," Liam complained. He scuffed his feet in the floor. "I bet Cordelia would let us play battle again." Liam looked up at Wesley to see if his ploy was working. It was not.
Settling Faith on his hip, Wes held a hand down to Liam. "Let's go home," he said. "You can ask Cordelia when we get there."
Faith laid her head on Wesley's shoulder. "Wesley," she said softly.
"Yes, luv?" he asked, not able to tear the image of her beating her hands bloody first on the vampire and then on the ground.
"You never answered my question," Faith said.
"Which question?" Wesley asked.
Liam grinned. He knew exactly which question Faith was talking about. "Are you Cordy's bi-"
Wesley cut him off. "Language," he hissed at Liam, "and no, I am not."
"Oh," Liam said looking thoughtful.
Faith said nothing. She'd fallen fast asleep.
As they walked to the car, Liam sang to himself under his breath. "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but I can kick your ass."
Wesley grinned. After all, the little verse did have a nice sound to it.