Thine Own Self

By Gidgetgirl

Chapter Five

“Where have you been all day?” a voice whispered in Colette’s ear. Colette turned around to face Nicolaa. She smiled tentatively at the older girl.

“I took a walk,” Colette whispered back. “And then I helped Lorne organize his vintage records for a while.”

“Did you sing for him?” Nic whispered back curiously.

Colette shook her head, thoroughly mortified at the very idea. “Why are we whispering?” she asked.

Nic gestured toward the next room, where Connor and Hopie had been brooding all day, until the little girl had finally fallen asleep, lying on Connor’s stomach while her brother stared at the ceiling, brooding.

“The little brooder fell asleep,” Nic whispered back. “The big brooder is working on setting an Olympic record for brooding.”

“Not going to happen,” Cordy commented, coming into the room. “I’m pretty sure Angel brooded for over a century straight once.” Cordy tiptoed into the room and picked the sleeping Hopie up off of Connor’s stomach. He didn’t move, the sullen expression staying on his face.

“Still brooding?” Cordy asked him, whispering as Hopie murmured, asleep in Cordy’s arms.

Connor gave her a look, and Cordy shrugged, but a moment later, her body stiffened almost imperceptibly. Connor, making use of his super sensing skills, noticed immediately.

“What do you see?” he asked the seer.

Colette and Nic looked on in interest. They’d never actually seen Cordy have a vision before.

Hopie’s eyes opened. “Vampires,” she said, rubbing the sleep out of her eye using her entire fist. She grinned. “Lots of them. One of them is dressed up like a clown.”

“Are you sure you weren’t just dreaming?” Nicolaa asked the little girl indulgently.

Cordy sighed. “Sadly,” she said, “she wasn’t. I definitely saw clown-vamp too, and let me tell you, a vamp with one of those red noses and those big shoes, major with the freaky there.”

“Slay time?” Hopie asked, stifling another yawn.

“Slay time for Daddy and Connor,” Cordy replied. “Bed time for you.”

“The Powers that Be don’t think it’s bed time,” Hopie said, her eyes opened wide. “Cause if they did, the wouldna sent me the vision.”

Cordelia sent a vexed look at the ceiling. Somehow, the Powers never seemed to care if it was after nine o’clock or not. Hopie sent Cordy a triumphant smile.

“Go tell Daddy what you saw and then put on your pajamas,” Cordy told the little girl. Hopie looked as if she was going to argue, but decided better of it. She scampered off to inform Angel of the vision she and her momma had shared.

Cordy turned to the girls. “You two had better saddle up,” she said. “With Faith gone, you girls need to be on your toes.” She paused for a moment. “Where’s Maddy?”

Nic couldn’t help herself. She giggled. “She and Clay are having a little conversation.”

“About what?” Cordy asked.

“About the value of not throwing random guys against the closest wall and kissing them,” Nicolaa replied. “It took Clay all day before he could manage to put together a full older brotherly lecture without needing to punch a wall.”

“Who did she kiss?” Cordy asked.

“Who didn’t she?” Connor said darkly.

After a moment of awkward silence, Connor and the two Potentials went to stock up on weapons.

Anni and Chance considered their choices of weapons carefully. Finally, Anni stuffed some stakes into the waistband of her jeans and checked herself out in the mirror. She smiled. Chance picked up a glaive and considered it carefully, a funny half smile coming across her face.

“Did the glaive say something amusing?” Anni asked her.

Chance shook her head. “Nope,” she said. “Just thinking about Kendall.”

Anni grinned shamelessly. She didn’t know exactly what Kendall had in store for Joss, but at lunch when Joss had subtly commented that Kendall was starting to get too old to be called, Kendall had just smiled sweetly in return, not even bothering to correct the younger girl. Knowing Kendall, Anni knew that meant that the brunette was planning something, and something devious at that.

When Anni heard the doorbell ring, she made a mad rush for the door, and cursed under her breath when Wesley somehow managed to make it there first. He opened the door and sent a chilling smile at Oz and Jordy, narrowing his eyes just a bit in a look that many people would have considered dangerous. “Hello, Jordy,” he said. “Oz.”

Oz and Jordy nodded identical little half nods in Wesley’s general direction.

“And what occasion brings you here?” Wes asked, shooting a suspicious look at Anni.

Jordy didn’t so much as bat an eyelash.

“Don’t get your panties in a twist,” another British voice said. “Just so happens I promised I’d take Wolfie Junior there and Miss Annabella trick or treating tonight.”

“Spike,” Wes said, gritting his teeth, “it’s not Halloween.”

“And generally, we prefer canine-prone to ‘Wolfie,’” Oz said, no tone entering his voice.

Spike smiled an evil smile that made Chance, who’d just walked into the room with Buffy, go weak at the knees. “That’s too bad then,” Spike said, “on both counts. Ready kiddies?”

Anni grinned at Jordy. Jordy grinned at Anni. Spike frowned and wondered what exactly he’d gotten himself into.

Sensing something, Oz turned around slowly, and he found himself staring at a frowning blonde woman for a split second before a tiny whirlwind on feet collided full speed into his legs. He looked down.

“Up,” a little voice demanded imperiously.

“I live to serve,” Oz replied, picking the little boy up with an easiness that surprised everyone but Jordy.

The boy’s mother came into the light. “Cale,” she said. “Come back to Mommy, baby.”

Cale, completely ignoring his mother, looked at Oz and growled happily, a tiny little baby growl that reminded Oz of the way Jordy had been when he was a toddler. Oz just looked at the kid, and Cale started cracking up.

“You’re funny,” he said, snuggling up to Oz.

“I get that a lot,” he replied. “I’m Oz.”

“I’m a monster duck. Quack. Grrrrrr. Quack.” Cale burst into another round of giggles.

“Impressive,” Oz said, smiling softly at the little boy.

“I’m sorry,” Kate said, “he had a long nap on the drive up here, so he’s kind of wired. I’m…”

“Kate,” Wes said, surprise registering in his voice. She looked at him, and recognition escaped her.

Buffy narrowed her eyes, and then recognition hit her. “I’ve met you before,” she said slowly.

Kate looked at her and nodded. “I believe I was threatening to lock Angel up in a sun-lit cell at the time,” Kate replied, her voice soft, without the hard edge it had once had.

Spike smiled. “Locking up good old Peaches? I think I like this girl,” he said.

“I don’t,” Buffy said plainly. “What are you doing here?”

Oz tickled Cale’s ribs slightly, and as the little boy burst into delighted laughter, his fangs popped up, and his face morphed ever so slightly.

Everyone in the room stared at Cale.

Kate sighed. “That’s what I’m doing here,” she said, her eyes pleading.

“I should have learned a long time ago that no two year old responds well to being tickled,” Oz commented wryly, casting a knowing look at Jordy, who responded by blinking just a bit more slowly than usual.

“I was told there was a woman here named Willow,” Kate said. “I think she can help us, help him.”

Concern crossed Wes’s face when he heard her speak Willow’s name.

Spike leaned over to take a closer look at the toddler, but Cale, suddenly shy, buried his face in Oz’s chest. Spike shrugged.

“Well, children,” he said to Anni and Jordy, “are we going to go on patrol or aren’t we?”

Anni and Jordy exchanged a silent look.

“Go ahead,” a voice said from the stairs.

Anni grinned at Willow. “Thanks,” she said. Wes, sufficiently distracted and confused by everything that was going on around him, simply stood there, motionless, as Anni placed a quick kiss on his cheek.

“See you later, Wes,” she said, and in the next instant, she, Jordy, and Spike had squeezed past Kate and Oz in the doorway, and the three of them were walking toward the cemetery.

“Coming?” Jordy asked Oz on the way out.

Cale buried his head further into Oz’s chest, and Oz heard a very muffled version of the monster duck.

“Guess not,” Oz replied, the corners of his lips turning up slightly.

“I can take him,” Kate said, anxious that a stranger was holding her son.

Oz stared at her eyes for a moment. “I’ve got him,” he said. Kate expected him to say something else, but he didn’t.

“Are we still going patrolling?” Chance asked Buffy. Buffy, her eyes locked on Kate, shook her head.

“Tomorrow night?” she asked the girl. Chance shrugged.

“Slaying them tomorrow will be pretty much the same,” she said. “Can I borrow that new nail polish of yours?”

“The guilt trip borrow-request,” Buffy said. “I know it well. Go ahead and use it.”

Stepping inside the house, Kate looked discretely from Buffy to Chance. There was something very odd going on here.

Buffy didn’t mince words. “She’s me,” she said without preamble. “Only younger.”

Kate had to restrain her former policewoman instincts, but she managed to keep from asking any questions. She turned to the woman on the stairs, and some surprise registered in her eyes.

“I’m pregnant,” Willow announced with a smile, as if maybe that hadn’t been made obvious by her bulging stomach. “And, I’m Willow.” She walked toward Wes, who was still oscillating toward frowning at the spot where Anni, Jordy, and Spike had last been seen, and examining Kate closely.

Don’t worry, Willow told him mentally. She doesn’t feel very threat-y to me, and Anni wasn’t wearing the black underwear.

For a moment, Wes thanked heaven for small favors. Then a horrid thought occurred to him. Anni hasn’t been talking to Anya lately, has she?

Willow tried not to giggle, knowing that no one else in the room knew what was going on with their private conversation.

“Tell me what you can,” Willow said to Kate simply, “and I’ll see if I can help.”

As Oz shut the door behind Kate and came into the room holding Cale, Chance slipped off to go find Kendall and tell her what was going on.

Kendall dusted her hands off and stood back to admire her handiwork. “See,” she said to Joss, “now that wasn’t so hard, now was it?”

Joss glared at her, but she didn’t reply. Kendall’s grin widened. The piece of duct tape over her mouth had been a nice finishing touch. Joss, her feet dangling off the ground, firmly duct taped to the inside of the door to their room, glared at Kendall.

Joss’s glaring was interrupted when the door swung open, inwardly. Kendall waved goodbye to Joss as the door swung on its hinges, hiding the outraged Potential from view.

Chance started talking quickly. “Kendall,” she said. “You’ll never guess what happened.”

Kendall smirked. “Neither,” she said, “will you.” Joss, still duct taped firmly to the back of the door, said nothing.

“Well, Mr. McDonald,” Mr. Kincaide said.

“Lindsey,” Lindsey corrected firmly, sending the man a charming smile.

“Lindsey,” Dakota’s father conceded. “Your school certainly seems to be the type of environment that Kody could benefit from.”

Lindsey nodded. “Our facilities are state of the art, our teacher to student ratio is extremely high, and our admissions are extremely selective,” he said, in his own lawyer way, not exactly lying about anything.

Faith tried not to grin, but she couldn’t help herself. Mr. Kincaide had yet to spend any duration of time whatsoever looking at Faith. All his attention was concentrated on Lindsey.

“When can you take her?” he asked. Faith gritted her teeth at this man, his dark hair the same shade as his daughter’s. He was speaking like Dakota was a chore, something he couldn’t wait to get rid of.

“That anxious to be rid of me, Daddy?” a voice asked lazily from the doorway.

“It’s not polite to eavesdrop,” Kincaide remonstrated gently.

“Well, there’s that,” Kody admitted, “but you know, it’s also not polite to shove your daughter into the first person’s hands who will take her off yours just because you’re horny and your flavor of the month wants me gone.” Dakota grinned at Lindsey, who was staring at her carefully. He couldn’t believe how much she looked like Faith.

“Hi,” Dakota commented, raising her eyebrow.

“Dakota,” her father said, his voice deep and serious, “if you hadn’t gotten kicked out of the last five schools, we wouldn’t be going through this right now.”

“We aren’t going through anything,” Kody corrected, her voice staying deceptively nonchalant. “I’m going up to my nice, big room, I’m going to throw all of my nice, expensive clothes into one large, overpriced duffel bag, and I am going to leave you and Rover and whatever the hell Lassie or Benji you’re cheating on her with, all to yourselves.”

Faith took a step toward her. “Dakota,” she said. “We need to talk.”

Before Faith could sway a word, Kody sauntered out of the room.

“I’m sorry,” Mr. Kincaide started to apologize. Faith didn’t bother to stay and listen. This time, she followed Dakota, even as the girl left the house and walked steadily toward the street.

Faith caught up with her without even breaking into a run. “We need to talk,” she repeated.

Dakota laughed a short laugh and tried to move away from the slayer. “Hey, Shiloh,” she said, pulling out another dog’s name, “we don’t need to talk about anything.”

Before she saw the movement, Dakota found herself firmly pinned to the wall surrounding her yard.

“You’re right,” Faith said. “We don’t need to talk. I need to talk. You listen.” Kody, considering the situation, glared at Faith but found that, though she was in no pain, she couldn’t move. There was more to this woman who looked like her than she had thought.

Dakota glared at Faith.

Faith glared back. “Hate to break it to you, peaches,” Faith said, “but you’re not the big dog in these parts anymore.”

Dakota smiled. We’ll see about that, she thought. “You wanted to say something?” Dakota asked her, her voice deceptively calm. Faith nodded, and knowing better than to release the girl, she started talking.

“And then Connor and I were brooding for a long time and then I fell asleep and then there was this vision that Momma had too and there were lots of vampires, and they were all going ‘grrrrrr’ and there was this guy and he was screaming, and one of the vampires was a clown and my teeth are stupid.” Hopie took a deep breath as she finished the long run-on sentence.

“Your teeth are stupid?” Angel asked.

“One of the vampires was a clown?” Gunn asked.

Hopie nodded, poking her teeth with her hand. “Stupid,” she confirmed to a bewildered Gunn and Angel. “And Uncle Gunn, yes he was a clown. Can I go with you guys? Please, Daddy? Please, Uncle Gunn?”

“What did your mother say?” Angel asked, trying not to stare directly into the batting eyelashes.

“She said I should put on my pajamas,” Hopie said. “Which I did.” The little girl gestured to the fuzzy blue pajamas she was wearing. “I can slay vamps in my pajamas. ‘Sides, Aunt Faith isn’t here, and so you might need me.” An idea occurred to Hopie. Maybe one of those vamps would be able to help her lose a tooth. She was wise enough not to mention the idea out loud.

“This discussion is not over,” Gunn, Angel, and Hopie heard Clay say as he and Maddy came into the room, followed by Cordy, Colette, and Nicolaa.

“This conversation consists of you insisting that me kissing random guys is bad,” Maddy pointed out reasonably. “What part of that haven’t you said yet?”

“Kissing random guys?” Angel asked, a bit disturbed.

Maddy turned and smiled brightly. “Know where I can find any?” she asked. All of the male occupants of the room glared at her. “Hey,” she said. “I need to learn how to kiss like a slayer, and that doesn’t just happen on its own, now does it? Anyway, it’s not like I need to learn how to have sex like a slayer or anything like that.” Maddy paused for a moment.

“Don’t even think about saying it,” Clay said. Maddy grinned innocently.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” she replied.

“I think he’s talking about sex,” Hopie said helpfully. “Aunt Anya says…”

No one wanted Hopie to finish that sentence.

“So about these clown vampires,” Angel said, changing the subject. Hopie grinned up at him adoringly.

“Crossbow and I are ready,” she said.

Cordy couldn’t help but smile at the little girl. “Why am I not surprised?” she asked herself.

 

 

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