"You have no idea how lucky you are!" Dawn said over dramatically into the cordless phone as she paced up and down her room, one arm waving in big gestures that were pointless since Janice, on the other end of the line, could not see.

"A younger sister would be so cool, but no, I got an older one, and Buffy is such a freak, she..." the brunette stopped abruptly when the very same sister she was talking about appeared in the bedroom doorway, arms folded over her chest and looking very annoyed.

"Yeah, I’m still here" Dawn told her friend, "but so is she" she said giving Buffy a nasty look. The Slayer rolled her eyes and waited for her kid sister to finish her call and hang up.

"You have no right to listen to my private calls" the youngest Summers snapped as Buffy came over and took the phone from her hands.

"Like I want to" she scoffed, "I just need the phone for myself, and hello, you weren’t exactly being quiet!"

"I can do what I want in my own room" Dawn told her, chasing out of the door and following her down the stairs where the Scoobies were assembled for a meeting.

"Dawnie, go back to your room and stop acting like such a baby in front of everybody" Buffy told her quietly, signalling her attention to the fact that the whole gang was present in the living room.

"I am not a baby" he sister protested, "I’m fourteen years old!"

"Well, that still makes you a kid, and it’s way past your bed-time, so go!" Buffy snapped, pointing up the stairs.

"Don’t try to make me look stupid just because your friends are here!" Dawn yelled back as Willow, Xander, Tara, and Anya, shifted uncomfortably in the background, "I don’t have to go to bed yet, Mom said I can stay up to say hi to Spike" she said, sticking out her tongue like a much younger child than she really was.

"Fine" Buffy rolled her eyes, "not that my boyfriend has any interest in a kid like you" she said almost too nastily, "If you have to stay up you might as well be useful. Go to the kitchen and see if Mom and Giles want help bringing the snacks"

"Whatever" Dawn shrugged, before flouncing off to the kitchen as instructed.

Buffy apologised to her friends who talked quietly amongst themselves as she dialled the number to Spike’s cell phone and waited for him to pick up. She was so glad she’d bought him a cell, it stopped her from worrying quite so much when he didn’t show at meetings on time.

She smiled as she glanced at the photos’ in frames on the shelf in front of her. Right beside a picture of her and Spike, was another of the two of them but looking so much different. It had been taken under a spell Willow had cast, that had turned both Slayer and vampire into five years olds. It was during their ‘tiny tots phase’ as Spike called it that they’d realised what they really meant to each other and now here they were in love.

"Damn!" she cursed as her call got redirected and an electronic voice told her to leave a message. As she opened her mouth to do so, something strange happened, the weirdest feeling that she would never be able to explain. Suddenly the world was a much bigger and scarier place and she really wanted her Mommy.

"You guys do know I could mentally scarred for life if you keep doing that in front of me, right?" Dawn complained good-naturedly as she came into the kitchen and found her Mom and Giles in a lip-lock. She actually really liked her sister’s Watcher and wasn’t as appalled as she acted by the fact he was dating her mother.

"One day when you’re older, you’ll understand" Joyce explained as Giles stepped back and allowed her to finish putting chips into bowls and cans of soda on a tray to carry through to the Scoobies.

"Why does everybody think I’m such a kid?" Dawn over-reacted badly after her little spat with her sister.

"Honestly Dawn, we don’t think that at all" Giles told her kindly.

"Buffy does" she said grumpily, "her and her friends all think I’m a kid, and they have no idea what it’s like to be the youngest"

"Well, sweetie, there’s really no way that they could" her mother told her, pushing her little girl’s hair from her face.

"I wish they did know" Dawn said, pouting like the child she was trying not to be, "I wish Buffy and her stupid Scooby friends were younger than me, then they’d know how it feels!" she said angrily. She got in such a little temper, Giles half expected her to stamp her feet and start crying, he was grateful however, when she didn’t.

"Dawnie, why don’t you take these chips through to the living room for me" Joyce asked her as she handed her two bowls, "and try to understand, honey, that Buffy only treats you the way she does because she cares about you, and she wants to protect you"

"Yeah, right" Dawn seemed unconvinced as she headed off through the door.

Giles and Joyce shared a glance as they picked up the rest of the drinks and snacks and followed the fourteen year old into the living room.

Nobody saw the vein-covered face by the back door, or heard the whispered words.

"Wish granted"

Spike winced as he put his hand to the back of his head and encountered more blood that he would’ve liked. As a vampire the red stuff was one of his favourite substances but when it flowed from his own body it was a much less satisfying experience. A group of demons had jumped him on his way from his crypt to Revello Drive, the price for fighting on the side of good these days.

It was almost a year now since he’d had this chip stuck up his brain, but even without wires and silicon in his head, Spike knew he’d be fighting demons only these days. Just a couple of weeks after the commando boys saw to it he never harmed humans again, the vamp they called Hostile 17 had gone through another change, and spent almost a week as a small child of five years old, along with Buffy. They’d grown so close in that short time and when the spell was over their love held firm. It changed too, from children’s affection to something deep and meaningful between them.

They were in love, in every sense of the word, though there was one way in which Spike and Buffy had yet to confirm it. He tried not to mind too much that every time they got close to being...close she stopped him. He didn’t doubt her love for him, wouldn’t dream of it since she’d proved her feelings in other ways. She’d even explained her reasons to him, the last two men she’d given herself too had ended up hurting her so badly, she was so petrified of it happening again.

Spike sighed as he reached the front door of the Slayer’s house. He had plans for their upcoming anniversary, one year since she’d showed up at his crypt and told him how the bed, the house, her life was too empty without him there. When she’d kissed him then the world had spun out of focus and nothing had been the same since, and Spike didn’t mind at all. Life wasn’t all blood and peaches what with him being the former Big Bad and her being the Slayer, but they got by, and even the Scoobies had adjusted to having him around.

Spike raised his fist to knock on the door, a little concerned by the way his head was spinning and the fact the blood was coming from his head at an alarming rate. What worried him even more was that no-one was answering the door, even when he knocked a second time and suddenly he heard a scream and an almighty crash of breaking crockery.

"Bloody hell!" he swore as he stepped back and kicked out at the door, smashing it clean of the hinges. He rushed inside, feeling overly woozy as he arrived in the Summers’ living room.

The sight that met his eyes didn’t make sense at all. A shocked looking Joyce, Giles, and Nibblet stood rooted to the spot by the kitchen door, and there in the living room sat four small children, a fifth standing before him that he recognised only too well.

"Buffy?" he said shakily, swallowing hard as the strangest feeling of nausea washed over him. A moment later the world went black as the unconscious vampire hit the floor with a thump.

"Spike!" the young blonde girl shrieked as she rushed to him and knelt down at his side, "Mommy, we have to help Spikey!" she told Joyce urgently but her mother could only stare.

"Buffy?" she checked, as the small blonde turned the vampire over on the floor, stroking his hair back off his face. The situation wouldn’t be half so strange if not for the fact Buffy was no longer her twenty year old self, but no more than six or seven.

"Mommy!" she squealed, her tone so high that the others wondered how anyone but dogs could hear her, "Giles, please, there’s something wrong with Spike. He’s bleeding and we have to help him!" she complained, tears coming to her eyes.

"Oh, erm, right" Giles snapped out of his trance first and moved to help the little Slayer get Spike up from the floor.

"Watcher?" he said groggily as his eyes flickered open and closed, "What the soddin’ hell is going on?" he asked, looking around with bleary eyes.

"Rupert, take him upstairs" Joyce told her boyfriend and he did as he was told. She faced Dawn next as Buffy followed the two men up to the bedroom.

"Dawn what did you do?" her mother asked, as the girl continued to stare at the four kids in the living room - a girl with red hair, two blondes, and one brunette boy.

"I didn’t..." she stammered, "Mom, I just said I wish and...I can’t have done this!" she gasped, "Can I?"

"Well, somebody did something and I can’t imagine it was anything other than magic, I just..." she trailed off as she too stared at the children in the room, who had all been a good ten and more years older than this just moments ago.

Willow scrambled to the floor and began to pick up the scattered Doritos and corn snacks that had been previously dropped. A moment later little Tara was also on her knees helping with the task. As one of them reached for a piece of broken crockery, Joyce stopped them.

"No, sweetheart" she told the red-head, "You leave the dishes, you might hurt yourself"

"Yes, Mrs Summers" she nodded dutifully, smiling all the time.

Joyce muttered something about cleaning up the mess as she went towards the kitchen, Dawn made to follow but her mother told her no.

"Dawn, could you stay here and keep an eye on the kids?" she asked her. The teen looked stunned.

"You want me to watch them!" she asked incredulously, "Mom, we can’t just clean up and make everything better, something’s happened. They’re frickin’ babies!" she half-yelled.

"Dawn, mind your language" her mother warned, "And I’m very aware that something strange has happened but right now my priority is cleaning up the dangerous mess in there. Then I’m going to check on Spike, Buffy, and Rupert, and only then will we be in a position to figure out what caused the..situation that’s occurred" she said in full mother tone, "Now, go ahead, back into the living room, and make sure the kids are okay"

Dawn did as she was told, smiling a little at the concept her wish seemed to have come true. Okay so it was majorly weird seeing Xander as a child, what with her having crush on him and everything but he was so cute like this. Then there was little Willow, Tara, and Anya, who looked equally sweet if not a little inappropriately dressed in tops with plunging necklines and heels she was sure they couldn’t walk on without falling and breaking their necks!

Anya was down from the chair she and Xander had been sharing and bending over to stare at the patch on the carpet where Spike had been bleeding.

"That vampire has made an awful mess" she stated, looking up at Dawn, "I’m certain your mother will be unhappy at having to replace such expensive looking floor coverings"

"Er, maybe" the youngest Summers replied awkwardly, the sight of so much blood turned her stomach and more so because she knew it had come from her friend. Spike was so great for Buffy, way better than Angel despite the fact he was a vampire too. He could love her unconditionally without a soul and he proved his feelings for her everyday with little romantic gestures and sweet words. Sometimes Dawn was almost jealous, but Spike was nice to her too and he was so great at being big brother. Seemed he was going to be playing that role for way more kids than just herself now she realised as she watched Xander surruptisciously pick up a couple of snacks from the floor and pop them in his mouth.

"Er, Xander, you shouldn’t eat those when they’ve been on the floor" she told him, finding it so weird to have to tell a guy that ought to be six years older than her such a thing as this.

"Sorry" he said, looking terribly guilty as he swallowed hard.

"That’s okay" Dawn nodded, "Just don’t have anymore" she said, before realising Willow and Tara were standing by her, holding up handfuls of recovered food for the trash and Anya was seconds away from putting her hand in the bloody patch on the carpet.

"No!" Dawn snapped, startling Tara and making her drop broken Doritos and Cheetos all over the floor once again. In silence she scrambled to picked them up again and Willow helped her feeling bad for the blonde who had tears in her eyes. Dawn pulled Anya away from the mess on the carpet and pushed her back towards the chair where Xander waited. It was as she turned back she noticed Tara was physically shaking and Willow was talking softly to her telling her it as okay.

"Tara?" Dawn said carefully as she crouched down with the too younger girls, "You okay?"

"I-I-I dr-dropped them" she stammered, fighting tears, seemingly so afraid of getting into trouble far adding to the mess she’d been trying to help clean up.

"Oh, that’s okay" Dawn assured her, turning around and fetching the waste paper basket, "Here" she told them to put all the snack they picked up from the floor into the trash and then turned back to Xander and Anya who were once again sharing a chair.

"...you’re a very nicely shaped young man" she was telling him, as the poor boy struggled to put space between them, not at all thrilled at the prospect of having a girl touch him at all!

"This is crazy!" Dawn said to herself as she glanced around the room again, but she knew somehow it had to be her fault.

"Buffy, my dear, would you run down to your mother and ask her to bring up some medical supplies" Giles said as soon as he’d got Spike onto the bed, Buffy’s own at her insistence.

"I have to stay with Spikey!" she protested in full whiney tone, but Giles held firm.

"Buffy the only way to help Spike right now is if you go and get the supplies from your mother like I asked" he told her and with a scathing look she finally did as she was told. As she left, pulling the door almost closed behind her, Spike exploded into a string of curses.

"Bloody buggerin’ hell, Rupert. What the soddin’ hell is going on here?" he wanted to know, sitting up fast and making his head spin all over again, still laying his head down was not really an option either, given the mess it was in and the way it throbbed at the back.

"I believe some kind of spell must have been cast" the Watcher explained as he took a closer look at Spike’s main injury, "It is possible Dawn may inadvertently have caused Buffy, Xander, Willow, Tara, and Anya to revert to small children"

"You mean to tell me my girlfriend is...? That little chit really is Buffy?" he asked in astonishment, "How the bleedin’ hell did the Nibblet do somethin’ like that?" he wanted to know.

"She quite recklessly made a wish" Giles sighed, "Something far more dangerous when one lives on a Hellmouth than if one were to reside anywhere else of course. She was unhappy at being treated as a child, you see?" he explained, grimacing as his fingers became covered by the blood leaking from Spike’s head, "She said that she wished Buffy and her assembled friends could understand what it was like to be younger siblings"

"And change-o prest-o, bite-sized Scooby club" the vampire sighed, "Reversible though right?" he checked, "I mean like me and the Slayer when we went through that tiny tots phase?"

"To be perfectly frank I’m not entirely certain" Giles admitted, "This all occurred just moments before you came through the door and you did steal a great deal of attention" he smiled wryly.

"Not on bloody purpose, mate" Spike snapped, "Though bloody’s the right word, dunno why my head won’t stop"

"There is rather a nasty gash here, it’s not healing as fast as one might expect, but I’m sure it’ll be fine" Giles explained as he looked to the door, wishing Buffy would hurry up with the supplies. As if she’d heard his thoughts she immediately came scrambling through the door with a couple of towels under one arm and a first aid box under the other.

"Thankyou, Buffy" her Watcher said as he took the things from her and worked on cleaning up Spike’s head. All the time the young girl stared at the man who was her boyfriend just an hour ago. Now he wasn’t sure where he stood with her, she was six maybe seven years old after all and he wasn’t. In this form she was cute but naturally not attractive in a womanly sense, Spike would’ve staked himself on the spot should he have had the same feelings for mini-Buffy that he did for her adult self, that would be wrong on every imaginable level!

"What happened, Spike?" she asked him, hazel eyes shining with tears she could barely hold back, "Tell me what hurt you and I’ll go slay it" she promised him earnestly.

"Er, Buffy" the vampire said awkwardly, feeling very strange in calling this little girl by the name of his would-be lover, "Sweetheart, you can’t slay what hurt me, I already did that, just got a couple of lucky blows in ‘fore I had the chance" he admitted, "Bloody hell, Watcher, go easy!" he growled at Giles, "Stings like a bugger that does" he told him as his wound was disinfected.

"One would think at the age of over a century, you would be a little less childish" the man who was older only in appearance snapped, as Spike drew away from the cotton padding being pushed on his aching head.

"Want me to do it?" Buffy offered and in perfect unison the two Englishman told her no.

There’s was no way to be sure if the little girl was capable of doing it right was Giles’ argument, where Spike was just uncertain how much of Buffy was still her and therefore very wary of letting her close to him. At this age, little girls could have big crushes on the men in their lives and given the nature of their relationship when she was a grown up, Spike didn’t fancy having little Buffy getting all googly eyed around him, that would be a whole new level of weird.

"Right, all done" Giles announced as he taped the bandages over Spike’s wound, "I imagine you’ll feel light-headed for a while, it might be best if you were to stay here for tonight, especially whilst...everything else is going on" he said, with a slight glance at Buffy.

"Yes, you have to stay here" she agreed with a firm nod, "I can help look after you, and Mommy too, we’ll help you get better" she grinned.

"Sure you will, luv" the vampire smiled uneasily, glad he usually avoided saying the blonde’s name anyway. He couldn’t call her Buffy, couldn’t think of her as such, not like this, "Er, you think you could run down and ask Mum if there’s some blood going spare in the fridge?" he asked her, though the very thought of eating made his stomach tighten awfully, he wanted her out of the room "Feelin’ a bit peckish, I am"

"One mug of blood, coming right up" she smiled sweetly as she headed for the door. As she left, Spike sighed.

"That ain’t gonna be at all awkward now is it?" he said to Giles, "Little Bitty Buffy having eyes for yours truly" he sighed, "As the lady herself might say, it’s just a touch wiggy knowing my woman is three feet tall and still has a thing for me"

"Yes, I imagine it must feel somewhat...inappropriate" the Watcher agreed, "Still, Buffy will no doubt spend less time with you when she realises she has other children her own age to play with"

"Good luck playing Daddy dearest with that lot" Spike smirked, "I mean the mini-witches might be alright, quiet and sensible and all, but the snack size version of the whelp and demon girl, that’s just a frightening concept, even for a vamp like myself" he admitted with an involuntary shudder.

"Thank you so much for the confidence boost" Giles said sarcastically, pushing the bandage down on the back of Spike’s head with unneeded force, making him yelp, "We don’t want that coming unstuck in the night do we" he said as he turned and walked towards the door, blue eyes glaring at his back he just knew it.

Still, Spike was right, Giles was all to aware of that fact. Trying to control not one but five small children until such time as when the spell or whatever it was that had caused this could be reversed was not going to be a simple task. With Dawn just a child herself really and Spike at least temporarily indisposed, it seemed he and Joyce were to be the parental figures.

As he reached the bottom of the stairs Giles realised what a truly horrifying prospect that was as Anya chased Xander round and round the couch screaming something about orgasmic pleasures, whilst Tara cried and Willow and Dawn did their level best to comfort her in one corner. All were ignoring the fact that large amounts of mess still adorned the carpet, slowly getting crushed by small bodies and stamping feet.

"Oh good lord" the Englishman sighed, removing his glasses and running a hand over his face, "This is going to be a nightmare"

"Now you be careful with that, sweetie, it’s very hot" Joyce instructed Buffy as she handed her a mug that was two thirds full of warmed blood, "Don’t run with it, go slowly, and be sure to tell Spike we have more if he wants it, okay?"

"Yes, Mommy" her daughter grinned as Giles got the door for her and let her out of the kitchen through the dining room where she should encounter less obstacles than going through the living room.

"How is he, Rupert?" Joyce asked when the blonde was gone, "Spike, is he going to be okay?"

"I would have thought so, yes" he assured her as they hugged each other, "I must admit I am more concerned about the condition of Buffy and the others" he told her.

"I can’t believe it’s happening again" Joyce sighed, "I mean, last year when Buffy and Spike were little, at least we knew how that had happened but this...Rupert, Dawn only said she wished they understood, how did that make them actually be children again?" she asked, looking so confused.

"A number of things could have triggered it" Giles explained, "A mystical stone nearby, a demon of some kind who sensed her wish or overheard it, possibly a spell...I really would have to research all the possibilities before I knew for certain what had caused all this" he admitted.

"Until then I don’t suppose there’s anything we can do" his girlfriend sighed, "Oh well, I’ve brought up two girls past this age, I never imagined I’d have to do all this with Buffy again, nevermind all her friends too"

"Yes, it seems we have rather been given the parental roles in this situation" he realised, "and as you know I have much less experience than yourself, having no children of my own"

"You know Buffy looks to you as her father figure" Joyce reminded him, "her own never cared half so much a you do, for Dawn too"

"They are dear girls, indeed the others are almost as important to me as my own children might have been" he admitted.

"And you’re a wonderful man, taking them all on like you have" Joyce told him with a smile, "I don’t know how they’d get along without you now...I certainly don’t know how I would" she admitted as they kissed.

"Rest assured, Joyce, you will never have to do without me" he promised her as they headed back through to the carnage that waited in the next room.

"Hey Spike" Buffy was grinning as she came back into the bedroom, a large mug in her hands as she walked carefully towards him.

"Hello, pet" he smiled at her, "That for me is it?" he said, head tilting towards the mug.

"Of course" the little Slayer wrinkled her nose as she passed the mug to him, "Like I would wanna drink that" she grimaced.

"Glad to hear you wouldn’t, luv" the vampire nodded, as he sipped at the substance and fought to hold back the demon that raged inside. He wasn’t certain whether he’d scare the Bitty Buffy or not if his game face showed, and the last thing he wanted to do was that.

"Is it okay?" she checked for his approval and he assured her it was perfect.

"98.6 exactly, couldn’t be better" he told her as he drank the rest down and she watched intently the whole time.

Buffy was in awe of the man before her. He was so brave, and strong, and handsome, and...there just weren’t enough words in the little Slayer’s head to do such a man as this justice. Okay so he was a vamp, but not an icky, evil one, he was special. Spike cared about her, and her family, and her friends. He was probably trying to stop some big bad evil thing from harming them all when he got so badly hurt and she loved him so much for being their protector. Not that she wasn’t a great protector too, she was the Slayer after all, but Spike was...well, he was Spike and nobody compared.

"Er, you think you could take this mug downstairs for me?" he asked suddenly, pushing said item into her hands, "I could use a bit of kip, y’know"

"Oh sure" Buffy grinned, "I’ll let you get your beauty sleep...not that you need it" she was quick to add as she backed out of the door, smiling brightly the whole time, "Good night Spike"

"’Night, luv" he called after her as he settled down and attempted to sleep, his mind whirling on in over-drive.

Tara liked Joyce, she reminded her of her own mother that she missed so much, especially right now as she sat with her on the couch and held her whilst she cried. Tara hated that she was so scared, she didn’t want to be and she knew she really had no reason to be frightened, Willow was here after all and one thing that remained the same was the fact she cared very much for the red-headed girl, but something wasn’t right. Things were different, much of the room seemed too big, and some of the people were wrong, she didn’t know why things had changed or how but she knew it bothered her.

Willow peeked at the little blonde from underneath Joyce’s arm and offered her a shy smile, hoping to bring some comfort. She liked Tara a lot, they were best friends she was certain. Although she too knew something here wasn’t quite right, she was sure it’d all be alright, so long as Tara was still here with her. The fact Xander and Buffy were around didn’t hurt either, they were also her good friends.

Xander himself was feeling strange as he questioned why he was the only little boy present. The girls all seemed to be smiling at him, most especially Anya, and whilst he knew he liked her, the small blonde scared him immensely too. She seemed to want to touch him a lot and he wasn’t certain he liked that. He was a little old to be thinking that girls had cooties or whatever but they still scared him a little bit.

Anya seemed unphased by the strange situation, though not too happy to realise she no longer had enough chest to hold up her very appealing top that she loved so much. It was immensely pretty, as she believed she herself was, and so the reason why Xander refused to let her within three feet of his body was unknown to her. She sighed as she looked over to the stairs and Buffy came pelting down them with a now empty mug.

"Spike’s sleeping now" she announced to the room, "He said the blood I took him was perfect" she said proudly as Giles took the mug from her hands.

"That’s very good, Buffy" he assured her as he took the mug through to the kitchen. Joyce turned to her older and yet younger looking daughter then.

"Sweetie, you and your friends are going to have to share rooms with me and Dawnie tonight" she told her.

"But Mom!" the little blonde whined, "I want to sleep in my room with Spikey, in case he needs me"

"Now honey, if Spike needs anything he’ll call and we’ll go running, I promise" Joyce told her, "but you can’t be in the room with him, he needs peace and quiet to rest"

"But I can be quiet and..." the little Slayer started up again, the look on her mother’s face silenced her and Dawnie sniggered at the way her sister pouted and folded her arms, still so much Buffy despite her lack of height and years.

Joyce quickly planned all the sleeping arrangements in her head, working around the fact that they had one boy in the mix with four little girls and a teenager, as well as herself and Rupert. Finally with use of a camp bed a sleeping bag and the couch everybody got settled, and Xander was only to pleased to have a brick wall between himself and Anya who seemed to have hands everywhere. Willow and Tara were glad to be just a few feet from each other and Buffy was glad to know Spike was within yelling distance should he need her urgently.

A loud crash upstairs awoke Giles with such a start that he tumbled clean off the sofa and landed with a thump on the floor, narrowly missing giving himself a free lobotomy on the corner of the coffee table. As he attempted to disentangle his legs from the blanket and get to his feet, more loud noises came from upstairs, signalling the fact that at least some of the children were awake and active. A glance at the clock told him that what felt like an ungodly hour to be awake was in fact eight o’clock in the morning.

Upstairs, Joyce was woken by the same loud noises and the sight of empty beds and scattered blankets all around her. Getting out of bed she pulled on her dressing gown and went to the door that linked her room to Dawn’s to watch the chaos for a moment.

"Does somebody want to tell me why it sounds like a herd of elephants have invaded my house!" she yelled over the noise, making Tara wince as if she’d been struck and hide behind Willow.

Xander came barrelling around the furniture, screeching to a halt by Joyce and hiding behind her legs to avoid little Anya who had a strange gleam in her eye that was altogether disturbing.

"I second your question, Joyce" Giles said from the other door as he arrived from the downstairs, "Do you think you children could possibly be a little quieter with your games, most particular at this time of the morning?" he said, aiming his words at Anya and Xander in particular.

"We’re sorry" Willow apologised anyway, putting an arm around Tara’s shoulders and holding her close. She was her best friend and she was upset, what else would she do?

"Uh, where’s Buffy?" Dawn asked suddenly realising her little-big sister wasn’t present.

"I think I can guess" Joyce sighed, prising Xander from her legs and walking back through her room. The little boy immediately dived behind Giles instead as Anya advanced and Dawn moved to sit with Willow and Tara who seemed distressed. They were always so good to her, seemed to understand more than the rest of the gang. Now she had a chance to look after them and she was going to do that to the best of her ability. Although she hadn’t intended to make this happen, turning all the Scoobies into kids was a total accident, she thought it might actually be fun for a little while at least. Dawn didn’t envy Spike though. She couldn’t imagine how weird it must be for him to have little Buffy still totally in love with him when she was only six or seven years old.

Joyce was having the same thought as she arrived at her daughters’ bedroom door. Buffy was standing by the bed, her elbows propped on the edge as she watched Spike sleep soundly. The little contended smile on her face showed her total adoration of the vampire and Joyce thought it was so sweet if not a little strange.

"Buffy, sweetheart" she called softly, "Maybe we should let Spike sleep a little longer and not disturb him" she suggested.

"Little late for that, Mum" the vampire told her as his eyes popped open and he moved very deliberately away from the edge of the bed where Buffy was stood, "I’m already disturbed" he told Joyce with an emphasis that told her of his double meaning.

"How are you feeling today, Spikey?" Buffy asked him, all wide eyed and innocent, "Does your head feel better?" she checked.

"Yeah, luv, reckon it’s alright this morning" he nodded gently, not wanting to risk a headache just in case.

"Come on now, Buffy, let’s get dressed and go down to the kitchen" Joyce said as she came further into the room and fetched her daughter out, "If you hurry you can help me make breakfast for everyone...including Spike" she added when she did not seem eager to move. At those words the mini Slayer bolted out the door and down to her own room to get dressed.

"Thanks for that" Spike said gratefully, "’S a bit weird seein’ her like that y’know"

"Tell me about it" Joyce rolled her eyes, "I feel like I’m living in a time loop, first a repeat of her as a five year old and now a little older. I don’t think I can deal with this every year"

"We’ll figure out what happened, get it reversed" Spike told her as he got off the bed and tested his legs which he was glad to realise held him much better now, "Soon as possible with any luck" he sighed as little feet stomped down the staircase, and he wondered how long it would be before last nights headache returned with a vengeance.

Joyce had thought briefly that it might be nice looking after kids again after years of dealing with just teenagers. Of course she loved her girls dearly, but the door slamming and general yelling gave her much more of a headache than bottle feeding and diaper changing ever had. This wasn’t her two girls back as babies though, this was five hyper-active first graders and a teen, although perhaps it was a little harsh to say all the kids were hyper. When asked to sit quietly and eat their breakfast, at least Willow and Tara complied and Buffy too since she found she could get a good view of Spike from her position on the stool, as he moved around the kitchen, helping Joyce out and getting his own mug of blood this morning.

Anya still refused to leave poor Xander alone, and the pair almost bowled Giles over as he came back into the house via the back door with this morning’s milk delivery. Thankfully he kept his balance and his grip on the bottle.

"Careful there, old man" Spike smirked, "Might have done yourself a terrible damage then"

"May I remind you, Spike, that you have almost a century on me age-wise" Giles pointed out as he passed the milk to Dawn who liberally poured it on her cereal.

"Yeah" the vampire nodded, "but I look a lot better on my years" he smirked, drinking his blood down. Buffy was watching him so intently she reached for the milk and didn’t realise Tara had too. The bottle went straight over, sending half the contents across the counter.

"Oopsie" the little Slayer announced as her mother turned and saw the mess.

"I-I, I-I d-didn’t mean to" Tara said, shaking her head. Spike who was nearest too her, crouched down by the stool.

"S’alright, little luv" he assured her, "No harm done" he said as tears sprang to her eyes, "Really, pet, no use crying over...well, spilt milk as it goes" he chuckled, and Tara found a smile for him.

"There now, that’s better, ain’t it?" he said glancing between her and Willow who nodded an affirmative, "Much prettier when you smile y’know" Spike told her as Giles watched the little scene in apparent amazement and Buffy shot daggers from her eyes. Spike said Tara was pretty, but he hadn’t said that to her!

"What’s up with you, Watcher?" Spike frowned as he got to his feet once again.

"Nothing, I’m sure" Giles shook his head, though he was lying.

"Wiccas treat me most decent of anyone in your damn Scooby club" he reminded the other man, "Reckon p’rhaps it’s cos they’re a little ‘unconventional’ like me and the Slayer, but either way, no reason I know for wantin’ to see ‘em suffer, right?" he said quietly with his back to the room, none of what he said ought to have been heard by the mini versions of the gang.

"Rupert, do you think you could chase down Xander and Anya for me?" Joyce called across to her man, "I really want to make sure they eat something before I go"

"Er, yes, I suppose but...before you go where, Joyce?" Giles asked her as Spike looked on, terribly put off when he realised Buffy was looking at him...again!

"Well, the kids only have the clothes they were wearing when, well, whatever happened " she explained, "I need to get them some more things, we have no way to know how long they’ll be like this"

"Sort of hoping it won’t be long" Spike squirmed as Buffy’s little eyes followed him wherever he walked, and her cereal dripped down her chin as she missed her mouth again, concentrating far too hard on something that was not her breakfast.

"I dunno, I think it’s kinda cool" Dawn giggled as Xander and Anya came thundering past her once again. As they ran around the counter and towards the back door, Spike grabbed them both with ease and picked them up, one under each arm.

"Where d’ya want the brats, Joyce?" he asked her with a smirk.

Maybe Baby Buffy would drive him round the bend, but having the power to dangle the Whelp above the ground from a great height - now that was fun.

With breakfast eaten and the kitchen cleaned up, Joyce had managed to get all the kids into the living room and in front of the TV where they all seemed perfectly happy to watch cartoons for a while. Buffy only joined her friends when Spike promised he’d be right in to watch too. He didn’t tell her he was sneaking down to the basement for a fag beforehand, didn’t want to be bad influence after all.

"I suppose I should begin researching possible reasons for what has happened to everyone" Giles sighed, "Though I doubt bringing my books back here would do any good. Although they are quiet now I have no doubt the noise level will rise significantly when they get bored of SpongeBob RoundTrousers or whatever his name is"

"That’s SquarePants" Dawn pointed out with a snigger as Giles removed his glasses and rubbed his tired eyes, "And y’know whatever it is I might have made happen, I’m kinda glad" she admitted, "I get to order the kids around, cos I’m bigger than them, and for once Buffy can’t be all superior on me"

"Dawnie, you know your sister only treats you the way she does because she loves you and wants to keep you safe" Joyce reminded her as she wiped her hands dry on the dish towel, "Although I am glad you like the idea of authority, since it seems you and Spike are going to be in charge today"

"What?" Dawn asked, her voice getting a little squeaky. Sure, she liked the idea of bossing her sister around and all, but actually taking care of five kids all day with only Spike for help, that wasn’t so good.

"Well, honey, it’ll only be for a few hours but Rupert really has to research this problem and he needs peace and quiet, and you know I have to get some more clothes for all the kids" Joyce explained.

"But Mom" Dawn whined, "How am I supposed to control five little kids?" she wanted to know.

"Sweetie, you’re always telling me how grown up you are, this is your chance to prove it" her mother told her, "Beside you won’t be alone, Spike will be here to help"

"Help with what?" the vampire asked warily as he appeared from the basement.

"You and me are going all Babysitters Club cos Mom and Giles have to go out" Dawn explained over dramatically folding her arms over her chest.

"Oh joy" Spike rolled his eyes, "Never saw myself as much as a father-figure, Mum" he told Joyce, "Sure you don’t fancy stayin’ home after all"

"You’ll do just fine, Spike, I’m sure of it" she smiled, patting his arm reassuringly as she passed by him.

The four walked through to the living room where the kids were still watching TV, Willow, Tara and Anya all squashed on the couch with Xander and Buffy lying on their stomachs on the floor.

"Now kids, Giles and I have things to do, so Dawn and Spike are going to take care of you for a while, okay?" Joyce said, getting their attention as she put on her coat and picked up her purse.

Little shouts of ‘okay’ and ‘whatever’ were called as Giles also grabbed his coat and followed Joyce to the door.

A moment later they were gone, and the credits rolled on the TV, signalling the end of the cartoon. Buffy was immediately on her feet and running at Spike.

"Spikey, you were gone so long I missed you and..." she stopped talking suddenly, wrinkling her little noise, "You smell bad" she said suddenly and Spike would’ve been quite offended if he weren’t so relieved to see her scamper away again. Dawn laughed at her sister’s behaviour and leaned a little closer to Spike to see what her issue was.

"I guess even little Buffy knows smoking is of the bad" she explained.

"Only make me get through more bloody fags if it keeps her away from me" Spike smirked, "Seriously Bit, soddin’ weird havin’ your woman reduced to miniature size like that and still have her all over you"

"I would say I can imagine" Dawn frowned, "but I really don’t think I wanna go down that road" she admitted as she went over to the couch and made sure Tara was okay after the upset of earlier. She was fine now it seemed, but Anya was not.

"I’m bored" she announced, "These animated people are not as amusing as the spongey man in the strangely-shaped pants!" she said, grabbing up the remote and changing channels.

"Hey!" Buffy yelled, scrambling to her feet and storming over to the other blonde, "This is my house, and my TV, and my remote!" she told her far more loudly than was necessary, "And I’m the Slayer so you have to give it!" she yelled as she tried to prise the remote from Anya’s hands.

"Hey, stop it!" the little ex-demon shrieked as she put up a fight for several moments before toppling from the couch and landing on top of Buffy. The two rolled across the floor, still fighting for the prize of the TV remote, and accidentally changing the channel many times in the process.

Spike and Dawn shared a looked before both diving in and attempting to pull the kids apart without harming them as Xander sat cross legged in front of the TV screen trying to keep up with the constant changes in picture, from Star Trek to Days Of Our Lives to the Cookery Channel and so on with each blink of his little eyes.

"That is enough!" Spike said firmly as he hauled little Buffy off Anya who was swiftly pulled back by Dawn.

"That was so cool!" Xander announced, gesturing at the TV screen that had now stopped flashing but was for some unknown reason showing a talk show dubbed into Spanish.

"Huh" Dawn commented as she held the struggling Anya and stopped her getting away, "Oprah is still Oprah in Spanish"

"Well, what did you think it’d be, Bit" Spike smirked as Buffy gave up the fight against his grasp. It seemed her natural Slayer fighting instinct had taken over so much she had not realised at first who was holding her and now she had noticed she didn’t mind so much.

"Now, we let go of you two you behave, right?" he told her and Anya.

The little ex-demon squeaked with annoyance.

"She started it!" she pointed out, still wriggling.

"She has a point" Dawn shrugged, looking aver at Spike who sighed.

"Right you are, should only punish the guilty party I s’pose" he smirked, looking down at Buffy who suddenly looked very wary of him, "Think it’s time someone took a time out" he said, trying not to laugh as Dawn let Anya go and practically bounced up and down with joy.

"Oh, oh, let me do it Spike" she urged him, getting down to Buffy’s height with a suddenly stern look on her face, "Buffy, go stand in the corner until you’ve calmed down and can behave properly" she said firmly and though the little blonde opened her mouth to protest, she changed her mind when she turned and saw the severe look on Spike’s face.

With a resigned sigh she went over to the corner and stood facing the wall. Anya watched her go and when no-one was looking the two stuck their tongues out at each other in true six year old style.

"She’s very violent" Anya muttered to Willow who didn’t answer. She didn’t like fighting or arguing of any kind. She was certain she and Tara never fell out over anything, they were such good friends. She turned back to her special friend when she tugged on her sleeve and motioned for her to come closer so she could whisper in her ear.

With conspiratal smile on both their faces, Willow slipped her hand in Tara’s own and they both looked towards the table a few feet away where a glass of juice had been placed for each of them. Spike turned from Buffy to the little witches just in time to see their beakers rise from the table and float across the space to their owners, landing perfectly safely in their outstretched hands without a drop spilt.

"Well, would you look at that" he smirked, "Guess that must’ve been what all the whispering was about, Bit, your little Wiccans here didn’t lose any of their magicks when they got down-sized"

"Cool" Dawn laughed as she realised what had happened and then observed Xander who seemed suddenly eager to take a hold of Anya’s hand. He concentrated hard on his own cup of juice but of course it didn’t move an inch. When he’d quite given up on that idea, he found Anya had not given up on her own plan and flatly refused to let go of his fingers now she had hold of them.

Spike aimed the remote at the TV, pushing all the buttons but it seemed every show on every channel was now on a Spanishaudio setting.

"Bloody fantastic" he cursed, "That puts paid to me watching Passions then" he sighed, "Today just gets soddin’ better and better"

"That was Mom on the phone" said Dawn as she came back into the living room, "Apparently shopping for five kids is taking longer than she thought, we have to get lunch for them" she explained.

"Bloody marvellous" Spike groaned as he pressed some more buttons on the remote and failed to find the one that would put the TV back into English.

The kids had mostly kept themselves amused so far, Willow and Tara seemed happy enough to sit quietly talking and floating the occasional object. Anya continued her pursuit of Xander until he made a point of hiding behind Buffy, at which point the other blonde got jealous and huffy and decided she was going to sit under the table until such time she felt she’d sulked long enough. Xander was relieved to say the least and very grateful to Buffy for helping him escape from the other little girl. Finding she had a sudden aversion to Spike, the little Slayer was happy to play with the brunette boy for a while, and the vampire she’d been obsessing over was only too pleased to be free of her for a while.

"You any good with technology, Little Bit?" Spike sighed, handing Dawnie the remote, "This thing’s driving me insane. Is it so much to ask, I mean what does a fella have to do to watch a bit of telly in his own soddin’ language" he complained.

"I think Mom keeps all the manuals to the appliances in the drawer over there" Dawn said thoughtfully, "I’ll look for it, try to fix the TV in time for your show, on one condition" she smiled slightly and Spike shot her a look.

"What kind of a condition?" he asked suspiciously.

"Well" she said slowly, "Can you make something for the kids to eat?"

"Oh you have got to be kidding me" Spike sighed, "You want me to play chef as well as nurse maid now? Does nobody have respect for the Big Bad anymore!" he said possibly a little too loudly. Anya’s head popped out from beneath the edge of the tablecloth so she could answer.

"Yes, I have respect for you" she told him with a nod, "You are a fellow former-demon and also nicely shaped and appropriately authoritative as a baby-sitter" she grinned.

Spike wasn’t sure whether he should take that as a compliment or just ignore it all together, so he mumbled a thanks and headed off to the kitchen to see what he could rustle up for lunch, as well as warm himself some blood. He hadn’t noticed that Anya had followed him into the kitchen until he turned around and almost tripped over her.

"Hi" he grinned up at him.

"Alright pet?" he checked as she tried to get herself up onto a stool by the counter and failed miserably. Spike rolled his eyes as he helped her in her task and she grinned at him when he’d done so.

"I want to ask you a question" she admitted as he searched the cupboards for possible lunch items, "It’s a question that only a male would know the answer to" she informed him and Spike didn’t like where this was going. Still, she may be Anya but she was only six years old, whatever she said, it couldn’t be too bad surely.

"Go on then, luv" he encouraged her, "Ask your big question"

"Why am I not attractive?" she asked simply and Spike silently cursed who or what ever had turned the Scooby gang into kids, for about the eighth time today.

"I mean, I personally think I am very pretty" Anya went on to say, "but Xander has an uncontrollable urge to run away from me"

"I don’t think that’s so much to do with you, pet" Spike told her with a smirk, "Reckon Xander’s just the run-away type, scared of everything that one"

The little boy in the living room was unaware he was being discussed and was much more interested in the friend that sat beside him as opposed to the people in the kitchen.

"Buffy? Buff!" Xander attempted to get her attention, but she really wasn’t listening at all. Her mind was all in another place, mostly in the kitchen with Spike, wondering what he might be saying to Anya. He’d already said Tara was pretty and been really nice to her and Willow, he seemed to talk to Dawnie a lot too. Buffy didn’t like it at all but she was feeling exceedingly jealous. Spike was hers, how dare any other girl so much as look at him! Okay so when he smoked he didn’t exactly smell great and sometimes he said bad words that Mommy would yell at her for saying, but he was just so...Buffy didn’t have words for whatever Spike so was.

"Buffy!" Xander tried again, finally getting the girl attention by pulling on her sleeve, "You’re messing up your picture!" he told her urgently and the little Slayer looked down and realised she’d absently put a mess of red squiggles all over what should’ve been clear blue sky.

"It doesn’t matter" she shrugged, scrambling to her feet, "I need to go see what’s happening in the kitchen" she muttered as she ran through to the next room. Xander sighed, he didn’t like being alone. At home there was no choice, his parents were always too busy yelling at each other to pay him any attention but if his friends were going to start abandoning him too...no sooner had he started the melancholy thought than he stopped again. Willow and Tara stood before him, holding hands and grinning.

"Can we share?" the little red-head asked shyly, "Me and Tara would like to draw stuff too"

"Sure" Xander smiled, making room for the two girls to sit with him and pushing the spare paper and crayons further into the middle of the space. The three were soon happily chatting and drawing, oblivious to their other friends distress.

As Buffy got to the kitchen door she heard Spike’s voice and then Anya as the little girl giggled.

"So, I really am pretty?" she checked, right as Buffy got through the door.

"Course, luv" Spike told her without even turning from the sink, "Prettiest girl here" he lied, anything just to keep her quiet. He turned sharply when he heard a little squeak from near the door and he hated to see little Buffy standing there, lip quivering like she was about to bawl.

"Buffy..." he said awkwardly, only to have Anya make things ten times worst.

"Hear that, Buffy" she grinned, "Spike thinks I’m the prettiest girl here" she said proudly and Spike suddenly wondered if it were considered inappropriate to drop kick annoying ex-demon children out of houses...he guessed it probably wasn’t the thing to do right now and instead went after Buffy as she bolted from the room.

"Buffy?" Dawn frowned as she watched her older but littler sister run through the room and hide under the table, much as Anya had done earlier, but more significantly just like she and Spike had done when they were five years old under Willow’s spell last year.

"What happened?" Dawn asked as Spike followed from the kitchen.

"Me and my big gob, that’s what happened" he admitted, "Your sister heard me tellin’ Anya she’s pretty and now she’s got all jealous and teary" he rolled his eyes, "I tell you Bit it’s bloody hard work bein’ this popular, ‘specially when your fan club's three feet high"

Dawn tried to suppress a giggle but failed miserably.

"On the upside I fixed the TV" she told him, "Passions, and all other shows should now be in their correct languages...I think"

"Good job, Nibblet" Spike smiled, as he ruffled her hair, and she scowled as she tried to straighten it out again, "but that’s the least of our worries right now. I’ve not got a clue what kids like to eat, and I reckon this lot’ll be gettin’ peckish any time soon" he told her, "Then there’s the Buffy-under-the -table-in-a-snit issue to consider"

"Well, lunch is so your deal" Dawn told him firmly, "Spike, last time I was let lose in the kitchen it took my Mom a month to get over it"

"Food poisoning?" he checked with a frown.

"Wanton destruction of the kitchen" she smiled, "I’d rather deal with Buffy than my Mom when she see’s the mess I would make"

"Right then, looks like I’m on chef duty after all" the vampire sighed as he headed back to the kitchen.

Dawn looked over at where she could just make out her sister’s feet from under the table. She felt kind of sorry for her really. It was tough being little and having a crush on someone so much older that didn’t care so much for you as girlfriend than a little sister or whatever. Dawnie had experience in that area, having loved Xander for so long. Now she saw him as a six year old boy, it was just disturbing.

"Buffy?" she called as she crouched by the table and moved the cloth aside, "Buffy, will you come out and talk to me?"

"No!" the little Slayer snapped, "I don’t wanna talk to you, I don’t wanna talk to anybody!" she said firmly, sniffling more than she would’ve liked.

Across the room, Willow craned her neck to see what was going on. She’d considered running after Buffy to make sure she was okay, but then Dawn had checked on her instead so she’d left them to it and gone right back to waiting for her turn with the orange crayon that Xander was still using.

"Almost done, Will" he said for the fourth time in as many minutes and patiently the little red-head continued to wait.

"Y-you could colour the, the sun y-yellow" Tara stammered, holding out the right coloured crayon to her friend. Willow leaned away from the other girl’s hand with wide eyes as if she were holding a hand grenade or some such item. Willow didn’t like yellow crayons, they were bad and dangerous and led to tearyness that she remembered only too well.

"I’ll have the yellow, Tara" Xander told the blonde, taking it from her, "Wills can have the orange now, I’m all done" he smiled, handing it to her and watching his best friend draw a bright sun in the corner of her picture of the three of them at the park. He knew why she was afraid of yellow crayons, he remembered that first day of kindergarten too.

Giles added a tenth book to the stack of irrelevant and unhelpful tomes. So far he had just three that were actually of any use. The first spoke of lucky charms, various items such as four leafed clovers and rabbits feet that on rare occasions actually made wishes come true instantaneously. The second book he’d added to the pile had a whole chapter on the power of the mind and people wanting things so badly that they came to pass through sheer will alone. The third though seemed to Giles to be a more likely source, in that it held the names and details of many demons, put on the Earth simply to grant wishes to those in need of justice. Somewhere near the beginning of the alphabetical index, Anya herself was listed, though under her demon name Anyanka of course.

Giles strongly suspected one of these so-called Vengeance or Justice demons were to blame for what had happened, having over-heard Dawn’s wish and granted it on the spot. He needed to research all other options as well of course but it was beginning to seem rather likely that an old friend of Anya’s named Halfrek, the patron saint of wronged children, may be to blame for what was happening. If that was the case it meant tracking her down, finding a way to make her reverse the wish and then disposing of her somehow.

"It would all be so much easier with a Slayer" Giles sighed to himself as he opened up another book. For now he would have to cope alone and hope that between himself, Joyce, Spike, and Dawn the children could be turned back into their adult selves before it was too late. If Halfrek was to leave town or worse still the dimension before they found her, the Scoobies could be trapped as six year olds for some considerable time.

"That was Mom on the phone" said Dawn as she came back into the living room, "Apparently shopping for five kids is taking longer than she thought, we have to get lunch for them" she explained.

"Bloody marvellous" Spike groaned as he pressed some more buttons on the remote and failed to find the one that would put the TV back into English.

The kids had mostly kept themselves amused so far, Willow and Tara seemed happy enough to sit quietly talking and floating the occasional object. Anya continued her pursuit of Xander until he made a point of hiding behind Buffy, at which point the other blonde got jealous and huffy and decided she was going to sit under the table until such time she felt she’d sulked long enough. Xander was relieved to say the least and very grateful to Buffy for helping him escape from the other little girl. Finding she had a sudden aversion to Spike, the little Slayer was happy to play with the brunette boy for a while, and the vampire she’d been obsessing over was only too pleased to be free of her for a while.

"You any good with technology, Little Bit?" Spike sighed, handing Dawnie the remote, "This thing’s driving me insane. Is it so much to ask, I mean what does a fella have to do to watch a bit of telly in his own soddin’ language" he complained.

"I think Mom keeps all the manuals to the appliances in the drawer over there" Dawn said thoughtfully, "I’ll look for it, try to fix the TV in time for your show, on one condition" she smiled slightly and Spike shot her a look.

"What kind of a condition?" he asked suspiciously.

"Well" she said slowly, "Can you make something for the kids to eat?"

"Oh you have got to be kidding me" Spike sighed, "You want me to play chef as well as nurse maid now? Does nobody have respect for the Big Bad anymore!" he said possibly a little too loudly. Anya’s head popped out from beneath the edge of the tablecloth so she could answer.

"Yes, I have respect for you" she told him with a nod, "You are a fellow former-demon and also nicely shaped and appropriately authoritative as a baby-sitter" she grinned.

Spike wasn’t sure whether he should take that as a compliment or just ignore it all together, so he mumbled a thanks and headed off to the kitchen to see what he could rustle up for lunch, as well as warm himself some blood. He hadn’t noticed that Anya had followed him into the kitchen until he turned around and almost tripped over her.

"Hi" he grinned up at him.

"Alright pet?" he checked as she tried to get herself up onto a stool by the counter and failed miserably. Spike rolled his eyes as he helped her in her task and she grinned at him when he’d done so.

"I want to ask you a question" she admitted as he searched the cupboards for possible lunch items, "It’s a question that only a male would know the answer to" she informed him and Spike didn’t like where this was going. Still, she may be Anya but she was only six years old, whatever she said, it couldn’t be too bad surely.

"Go on then, luv" he encouraged her, "Ask your big question"

"Why am I not attractive?" she asked simply and Spike silently cursed who or what ever had turned the Scooby gang into kids, for about the eighth time today.

"I mean, I personally think I am very pretty" Anya went on to say, "but Xander has an uncontrollable urge to run away from me"

"I don’t think that’s so much to do with you, pet" Spike told her with a smirk, "Reckon Xander’s just the run-away type, scared of everything that one"

The little boy in the living room was unaware he was being discussed and was much more interested in the friend that sat beside him as opposed to the people in the kitchen.

"Buffy? Buff!" Xander attempted to get her attention, but she really wasn’t listening at all. Her mind was all in another place, mostly in the kitchen with Spike, wondering what he might be saying to Anya. He’d already said Tara was pretty and been really nice to her and Willow, he seemed to talk to Dawnie a lot too. Buffy didn’t like it at all but she was feeling exceedingly jealous. Spike was hers, how dare any other girl so much as look at him! Okay so when he smoked he didn’t exactly smell great and sometimes he said bad words that Mommy would yell at her for saying, but he was just so...Buffy didn’t have words for whatever Spike so was.

"Buffy!" Xander tried again, finally getting the girl attention by pulling on her sleeve, "You’re messing up your picture!" he told her urgently and the little Slayer looked down and realised she’d absently put a mess of red squiggles all over what should’ve been clear blue sky.

"It doesn’t matter" she shrugged, scrambling to her feet, "I need to go see what’s happening in the kitchen" she muttered as she ran through to the next room. Xander sighed, he didn’t like being alone. At home there was no choice, his parents were always too busy yelling at each other to pay him any attention but if his friends were going to start abandoning him too...no sooner had he started the melancholy thought than he stopped again. Willow and Tara stood before him, holding hands and grinning.

"Can we share?" the little red-head asked shyly, "Me and Tara would like to draw stuff too"

"Sure" Xander smiled, making room for the two girls to sit with him and pushing the spare paper and crayons further into the middle of the space. The three were soon happily chatting and drawing, oblivious to their other friends distress.

As Buffy got to the kitchen door she heard Spike’s voice and then Anya as the little girl giggled.

"So, I really am pretty?" she checked, right as Buffy got through the door.

"Course, luv" Spike told her without even turning from the sink, "Prettiest girl here" he lied, anything just to keep her quiet. He turned sharply when he heard a little squeak from near the door and he hated to see little Buffy standing there, lip quivering like she was about to bawl.

"Buffy..." he said awkwardly, only to have Anya make things ten times worst.

"Hear that, Buffy" she grinned, "Spike thinks I’m the prettiest girl here" she said proudly and Spike suddenly wondered if it were considered inappropriate to drop kick annoying ex-demon children out of houses...he guessed it probably wasn’t the thing to do right now and instead went after Buffy as she bolted from the room.

"Buffy?" Dawn frowned as she watched her older but littler sister run through the room and hide under the table, much as Anya had done earlier, but more significantly just like she and Spike had done when they were five years old under Willow’s spell last year.

"What happened?" Dawn asked as Spike followed from the kitchen.

"Me and my big gob, that’s what happened" he admitted, "Your sister heard me tellin’ Anya she’s pretty and now she’s got all jealous and teary" he rolled his eyes, "I tell you Bit it’s bloody hard work bein’ this popular, ‘specially when your fan club's three feet high"

Dawn tried to suppress a giggle but failed miserably.

"On the upside I fixed the TV" she told him, "Passions, and all other shows should now be in their correct languages...I think"

"Good job, Nibblet" Spike smiled, as he ruffled her hair, and she scowled as she tried to straighten it out again, "but that’s the least of our worries right now. I’ve not got a clue what kids like to eat, and I reckon this lot’ll be gettin’ peckish any time soon" he told her, "Then there’s the Buffy-under-the -table-in-a-snit issue to consider"

"Well, lunch is so your deal" Dawn told him firmly, "Spike, last time I was let lose in the kitchen it took my Mom a month to get over it"

"Food poisoning?" he checked with a frown.

"Wanton destruction of the kitchen" she smiled, "I’d rather deal with Buffy than my Mom when she see’s the mess I would make"

"Right then, looks like I’m on chef duty after all" the vampire sighed as he headed back to the kitchen.

Dawn looked over at where she could just make out her sister’s feet from under the table. She felt kind of sorry for her really. It was tough being little and having a crush on someone so much older that didn’t care so much for you as girlfriend than a little sister or whatever. Dawnie had experience in that area, having loved Xander for so long. Now she saw him as a six year old boy, it was just disturbing.

"Buffy?" she called as she crouched by the table and moved the cloth aside, "Buffy, will you come out and talk to me?"

"No!" the little Slayer snapped, "I don’t wanna talk to you, I don’t wanna talk to anybody!" she said firmly, sniffling more than she would’ve liked.

Across the room, Willow craned her neck to see what was going on. She’d considered running after Buffy to make sure she was okay, but then Dawn had checked on her instead so she’d left them to it and gone right back to waiting for her turn with the orange crayon that Xander was still using.

"Almost done, Will" he said for the fourth time in as many minutes and patiently the little red-head continued to wait.

"Y-you could colour the, the sun y-yellow" Tara stammered, holding out the right coloured crayon to her friend. Willow leaned away from the other girl’s hand with wide eyes as if she were holding a hand grenade or some such item. Willow didn’t like yellow crayons, they were bad and dangerous and led to tearyness that she remembered only too well.

"I’ll have the yellow, Tara" Xander told the blonde, taking it from her, "Wills can have the orange now, I’m all done" he smiled, handing it to her and watching his best friend draw a bright sun in the corner of her picture of the three of them at the park. He knew why she was afraid of yellow crayons, he remembered that first day of kindergarten too.

Giles added a tenth book to the stack of irrelevant and unhelpful tomes. So far he had just three that were actually of any use. The first spoke of lucky charms, various items such as four leafed clovers and rabbits feet that on rare occasions actually made wishes come true instantaneously. The second book he’d added to the pile had a whole chapter on the power of the mind and people wanting things so badly that they came to pass through sheer will alone. The third though seemed to Giles to be a more likely source, in that it held the names and details of many demons, put on the Earth simply to grant wishes to those in need of justice. Somewhere near the beginning of the alphabetical index, Anya herself was listed, though under her demon name Anyanka of course.

Giles strongly suspected one of these so-called Vengeance or Justice demons were to blame for what had happened, having over-heard Dawn’s wish and granted it on the spot. He needed to research all other options as well of course but it was beginning to seem rather likely that an old friend of Anya’s named Halfrek, the patron saint of wronged children, may be to blame for what was happening. If that was the case it meant tracking her down, finding a way to make her reverse the wish and then disposing of her somehow.

"It would all be so much easier with a Slayer" Giles sighed to himself as he opened up another book. For now he would have to cope alone and hope that between himself, Joyce, Spike, and Dawn the children could be turned back into their adult selves before it was too late. If Halfrek was to leave town or worse still the dimension before they found her, the Scoobies could be trapped as six year olds for some considerable time.

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.