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New All Over, Part Six

They were all watching a late night movie when Buffy and Giles finally came back. Cordelia and Xander had bathed Wesley and gotten him into his pyjamas - he had been too sleepy by that point to do anything except shove his arms into the jacket as directed without really opening his eyes - but they hadn’t wanted to put him to bed until Buffy was back, as they knew Wesley wouldn’t be happy if he woke up and she wasn’t there. So, a trawl through the channels had produced something in black and white with sound so bad you could hardly make out the words but a plot that didn’t look too scary for an eight year old boy should he wake up. Wesley was asleep with his head on Willow’s lap, his body on Oz’s lap and his feet in Cordelia’s, she was rubbing them absently to keep them warm. Angel was sitting on the floor with Xander, saying: “I remember when this one first came out. I queued to see it.”

“Man, you’re old,” Xander observed.

“They sure drank a lot in those old films…” Cordelia observed.

And then Buffy and Giles came in and everyone beamed at them in relief while putting their fingers across their lips and pointing down at where Wesley was asleep. Buffy yanked Ethan forward and they saw he looked as if he had probably been a little pummelled, and Giles clasped a hand across his mouth when he attempted to make a jaunty hello, and dragged him into the kitchen and tied him to a chair.

“Do I need to gag you?” Buffy demanded.

“Uh - no, on reflection, I think not. Not that I don’t enjoy a bit of bondage as much as the next man - supposing the next man is Ripper… All right, I’ll be good....”

Buffy came back in, whispering: “How is he?”

Willow, Oz, Cordelia and Xander all pointed at the little boy wordlessly and Buffy immediately felt his forehead.

Angel barely contained a smirk. “Buffy, he’s asleep, and, no, he doesn’t have a fever.”

“I know.” She gave him a look but did withdraw her hand.

Giles had hung up his coat and now hurried over to the couch. “Everything okay?” He felt Wesley’s forehead.

Buffy rolled her eyes. “Giles, he’s just asleep. Don’t be such a worrywart.”

Wesley stirred, his long eyelashes fluttered, and then he opened his eyes. When he saw Buffy his face broke into a beaming smile and he held his arms up to her. She immediately picked him up and cuddled him while he sighed blissfully and snuggled in against her.

“Cordy said you’d come back,” he said sleepily. “She said you make everyone feel safe.”

Buffy looked across at Cordelia, still feeling the heat from the little boy’s side where she had bruised his ribs, and Cordelia gave her a look that made it very clear she was just being tactful. Buffy was still grateful though. She mouthed ‘thank you’ at the girl and took Wesley over to the dining room table where he could sit comfortably on her lap.

Giles sat opposite her as Wesley snuggled back in comfortably. He wasn’t quite asleep but there didn’t seem much chance of him taking in what they were saying.

Buffy nodded at the kitchen. “Do you think he’s telling the truth?”

Giles grimaced. “Usually if Ethan’s lips are moving then he’s lying.”

She looked down at the little boy in her lap. “Giles, if something happens to Wesley when he’s like this, I don’t think I can…”

He held her hand. “Nothing is going to happen to him. Well, except for him being turned into a very vulnerable little boy, of course.”

Wesley wriggled sleepily out of Buffy’s grasp. “Can I get myself a glass of water?”

“Of course, sweetheart,” she said absently, still trying to think of a way to get Ethan to tell the truth about the amulet. He was insisting that he had sent it to Giles just as a matter of curiosity as he had no idea what it did and thought Giles might know. He’d thought they could discuss it over a glass of wine but Giles had flown off the handle when he saw him and they’d never been able to have that conversation. He hadn’t even pretended he wasn’t lying but he had kept right on lying all the same. She lifted Wesley down and he moved off, still drowsily. She sighed. “Isn’t there something that matters to Ethan? Something we could threaten? Or something he wants that we could offer to get him in exchange for his help?”

Giles shook his head. “I think all he wants these days is to cause as much trouble as possible and anything he wanted would not be something we could - in good conscience - ever give him.”

“Hello, Mr. Rayne.”

They both looked at each other in horror as they heard Wesley’s casual greeting and turned to see the little boy reaching up to the taps to get himself some water.

As everyone in the room rose to his or her feet in horror, Ethan said: “Hello, Wesley. Good Lord - Wesley...? What are you...?” And then there was a silence as Ethan’s agile mind obviously dealt with the problem. He darted one look over his shoulder at Giles and then turned back to the boy, saying conversationally: “So, I forget, how old are you now?”

“I’m eight.” Wesley turned around with a glass of water in his hand, looked at Ethan for a moment and then said: “Would you like a glass of water too?”

“No, thank you, Wesley, I’m fine. Eight…so…I was very sorry to hear about what happened to your Uncle Richard. He was a very…decent man. Cuthbert well, is he?”

“Yes, thank you, Mr Rayne.” Wesley stood in front of Ethan gingerly sipping his water. “Why are you tied up?”

“I asked Rip…Mr. Giles if he would tie me up so I can practise undoing knots. That can be very useful when you’re in a dangerous situation.”

“Oh.” Wesley looked intrigued. “Can you show me how to untie knots, Mr. Rayne?”

“Another time, I’d be glad to. Now, Wesley, would you be a good boy and go and ask Mr Giles to come in here? There’s a good lad.”

Wesley came back out with his glass of water in his hand - watching the glass carefully all the time in case it looked like spilling - and said, “Mr. Rayne would like to speak to you, Uncle Giles. Can I practise untying knots too tomorrow?”

“Perhaps.” Giles patted the boy awkwardly on the shoulder and dived into the kitchen, while Buffy nodded to a bewildered-looking Angel who picked up Wesley while she also headed into the kitchen.

“Close the door,” Ethan ordered.

Giles did so, looking at him curiously. “You know Wesley?”

“Yes, I know Wesley. More to the point I knew his uncle. Very well.” His gaze flickered to Giles briefly. “I liked Dick Pryce, and you know how few people there are on this planet that I have ever actually liked, Ripper, but he was one of them. He was a good man and more to the point he was bloody good company and he managed to ‘do his duty’ as defender of the oppressed and all that nonsense without turning into a sanctimonious little prig, unlike some people not a million miles away from where I’m standing right now who used to be fun and then got oh so incredibly boring.” His gaze turned on Giles contemptuously.

Buffy shifted her feet. “You knew Wesley when he was a little boy?”

“Yes, which by my calculations was eighteen long years ago. I don’t need to ask why he is now that age again.” Ethan glared at Giles. “And you were going to tell me about this, when exactly?”

“Never,” Giles retorted. “The last thing I ever like to give you is an advantage.”

“How charming.” Ethan thought hard. “Well, things are serious now, so perhaps you and your little vamp-slaying cheerleader pal will stop wasting my time with half truths and evasions and tell me what exactly happened and when?”

Buffy could only watch in confusion as Giles grudgingly told Ethan everything that had happened.

Ethan nodded. “Okay. That sounds pretty much as if it worked to plan. Has he shown any side effects?”

“No,” Giles admitted. “He seems to be pretty much as one would expect an eight year old boy raised by a miserable bastard like Roger Wyndam-Pryce to be.”

“Don’t even talk to me about that insufferable ass,” Ethan said darkly. “The rows Dicky had with him. Dick loved that little boy, which was just as well, because no other bugger did. I was still trying to get him to agree to us just pushing Wyndam-Pryce senior into a nice swirling vortex when Dicky came a cropper himself.”

Buffy put a hand up to her head. “You’re telling me - you like small children now…?”

“No,” Ethan told her shortly. “I detest small children and think they are all admirably suited to be demon brunch. But I liked Dicky Pryce and he liked that little boy. Why on earth was Wesley here anyway?”

“Another Watcher,” Giles explained.

“I was afraid he wouldn’t rebel. Poor little sod. Dicky used to come up from his duty calls to the old family pile seething with rage about the way that kid was treated. Did you know his father used to lock him under the stairs?”

“We worked it out,” Giles admitted.

Ethan put his head back. “Damn, if I’d known it was going to get him instead of you I’d have been a bit more careful with the spell. Still, it should be all right.”

“'Should'?” Buffy demanded.

“Well, in theory it should wear off in about ten days. I just skimped on some of the prep work because some of the ingredients the old books were so fond of just aren’t available at cost. It’s like Mrs. Beeton, isn’t it? Who can afford to use all those eggs these days? Of course, you cut corners.”

Giles gritted his teeth. “How many corners did you cut?”

“Don’t panic. I just made substitutions. There was a slight risk you might melt into a puddle of goop after a week or so but it was a very slight risk and frankly I didn’t much care. But as it’s Wesley, I think a little counter-spell work to stabilize the incantation might be a good idea. And then it should wear off as normal.”

“There is nothing ‘normal’ about this!” Buffy said shortly. “Going around sending people mystical amulets to make them halve their age overnight isn’t normal, Ethan. It’s weird. And wrong.”

“Oh, do spare me the Enid Blyton morality lecture, darling,” Ethan retorted. “I’m more invested in fixing this than you are anyway.”

“You are not,” she returned, trembling with rage. “No one is more…”

Ethan looked at her and then nodded. “Oh, I see. Well, I wouldn’t let me know that you’re fond of the boy, Buffy, or I might think that the fun of watching you squirm outweighs even my lingering affection for his late uncle.”

Giles said quietly, “Ethan, if there is even a shred of normal human decency left in you, will you please help us to undo what you did?”

Ethan looked at Buffy again. “Are you sure that’s what we want? Some people seem to have something of an investment in him staying the way he is.”

Buffy looked at him. “Is there a way to make that happen?”

Ethan sighed. “There’s another spell but it’s very dangerous and there’s only a one in five chance of it working without killing him. But your choice. Twenty percent chance of successfully keeping him a child or eighty percent chance of stabilizing the spell until it wears off and he returns to being an adult. Take your pick.”

Buffy didn’t hesitate. “We stabilize him. We’ll do it tomorrow. Willow can help. But I swear, if you are lying or…”

“Actually, for once, I’m not, and it almost pains me to have to admit it, but I am actually being honest. It’s an odd sensation and I can’t say I’m enjoying it.” Ethan grimaced then looked up at Giles. “You can, of course, keep me tied to a chair all night and have the joy of trying to make breakfast for the small commune you seem to have living with you around my bound and by then probably urine-soaked body, or you can let me go and I can research this spell a little more, get the ingredients I need, and turn up here tomorrow.”

Buffy looked at Giles aghast. “You can’t trust him.”

Giles looked at Ethan for a long moment and then reached for the knife on the side. He held it to Ethan’s throat. “Understand this, Ethan. If you don’t come back tomorrow, I will hunt you down and kill you. If you make a ‘mistake’ in your spellcasting, I will hunt you down and kill you. In fact if anything happens to Wesley as a consequence of this spell, I will hunt you down and kill you. Is that clear?”

Ethan winced as the blade touched his throat. “Crystal clear, Ripper.”

Buffy grabbed his hair. “And I’ll be the one hunting you down with him.”

There was the sound of the door opening and closing and then Angel said quietly: “Just to make things clearer, I’ll be the one killing you, and I can make it last for a very long time.” He morphed into fang face, momentarily pure demon. “Look up Angelus if you’re not sure of all the details.” He changed back into his normal face but his gaze was grim.

Ethan looked between them. “You know, you people are all wound awfully tight. Have you thought about taking a holiday?”

Buffy clenched her fist near his face. “Have you thought about the benefits of plastic surgery? Because you’re going to need plenty of it if you don’t do exactly what we say.”

“Understood.” Ethan shrugged as well as he could with his hands tied behind his back.

Giles cut him free and Ethan winced and rubbed his wrists then got to his feet. “I’ll be back tomorrow - with the spell and the ingredients. You’re sure you wouldn’t like me to pick you out a nice dress as well, Buffy? I seem to remember you rather liked my taste in costume wear…”

“Bring a dress here and you’ll be the one wearing it,” she told him.

He essayed mild regret. “Well, it wouldn’t be the first time.”

“Until tomorrow then,” Giles said grimly.

Ethan nodded, straightened his creased jacket and headed for the door. Angel stood in front of him, glaring at him balefully, and then stepped back to let him through.

In the sitting room, Ethan said jauntily, “Well, goodnight all. So nice to see you again, Wesley. I’ll be back tomorrow and we can do some of those spells that you always liked.”

Wesley looked up from his place on the floor. “Good night, Mr. Rayne.”

Then the door had closed behind Ethan and Willow, Oz, Xander and Cordelia were giving Buffy and Giles ‘what the hell?’ looks. Buffy noticed that Wesley was sitting on Xander’s chest where Xander was lying on the floor and Willow was absently cuddling Cuthbert.

“Apparently Ethan knows Wesley from way back,” Giles explained carefully. “And was very close to Wesley’s late uncle, Richard. He has something of a personal investment therefore in ensuring Wesley’s well-being.”

“You believe that?” Xander demanded.

Giles nodded. “For once, yes, I actually do.”

Wesley said innocently. “Mr. Rayne knows lots of spells. He taught me some of them.” He sighed. “But Daddy got angry and I wasn’t allowed to play with him any more.” He looked up at Giles anxiously. “You don’t mind me playing with him, do you?”

“Not if supervised,” Giles returned. “Very carefully supervised.”

Buffy said briskly: “Okay, bedtime now. Do you want to watch the end of the movie, Will?”

“I’ll be up in five minutes,” Willow said drowsily.

Buffy picked up Wesley from Xander’s chest. Xander murmured, “Hey, no fair, we were having some men’s time.”

“You can have some more ‘men’s time’ tomorrow, doing manly things like playing with little plastic sailboats…” Buffy carried Wesley around for his goodnight cuddles with everyone and Giles had to fight hard not to find adorable the way Wesley was now so at ease with them that he quite happily put an arm around Angel’s neck, hugged Giles, kissed Cordy - who straightened his pyjama jacket for the fiftieth time - and hugged Oz, Xander, and Willow again, who - torn between snuggling with Oz for another five minutes and cuddling Wesley in bed - gave a little whimper of indecision.

Oz smiled, kissed her on the forehead and said, “It’s okay. You can go and cuddle Wesley. I know you still love me.”

“I do! I so do.” She beamed at him, kissed him again, and then darted after Buffy, saying, “Wait! I have Cuthbert!”

Oz watched her go then looked at Xander. “They’re not going to be like this when Wesley’s big again, are they? Because that would be…kind of disturbing.”

“They’d better not be,” said Cordelia tartly. “I have dibs on him.”

Giles said, “It would definitely be contrary to every rule in the Watcher’s Handbook for a Watcher to um…snuggle with a witch and a Slayer every night.”

“What about now…?” Xander enquired. “Isn’t Wesley sort of breaking the rules a little bit now?”

“Wesley’s in New York, attending a Rare Book Fair,” Giles observed calmly. “So, clearly cannot be here playing with little plastic people or - snuggling with Slayers. Now, would you mind getting off my couch?”

Oz slid onto the floor next to Xander and Cordelia slid down next to him, all three of them still watching the television.

Giles said, “Um - Cordelia, I don’t feel entirely comfortable changing into my pyjamas while you’re here.”

She nodded at the bathroom. “It’s just over there.”

Sighing, Giles, took his pyjamas into the bathroom, brushed his teeth, and came back out to find that Angel was now sitting next to Cordelia, all four of them using his couch as a backrest while raptly watching what looked remarkably like a Hammer Horror film about vampires.

“This is so full of stereotypes,” Angel snorted.

“Not to mention screaming women,” Cordelia pointed out. “How come they all fall over when they run away?”

“What is with the sleeping in the coffin thing? There are no vampires who sleep in coffins.”

“But there are sexy vampire chicks who molest lonely young men, right?” Xander pressed. “And please tell me the lesbian subtext is canonical, because otherwise so many good fantasies are just killed right there.”

A shot of a full moon gave way to a howling wolf. Oz frowned. “Do I sound like that?”

“Kind of…” Xander admitted, passing him the popcorn.

“That’s actually kind of cool.”

Angel accepted the popcorn from Oz while never taking his eyes off the screen. “Again with the coffins!”

Giles thought about asking them to switch off the TV or say - shut up - but then realized it was probably hopeless and so climbed over the arm of the couch, pulled a blanket over himself and said a firm: “Good night.”

“Night, Giles.” Angel handed back the popcorn. “Can you believe the clothes this guy is wearing?” Everyone looked at Angel who looked down at himself. “What? I don’t wear evening dress. Or a cloak.”

“That coat is kind of affected though, isn’t it?” Xander pointed out.

“It’s useful.”

“For what?”

“It doesn’t show stains. And what is with the bat thing? I don’t even like bats.”

“He is kind of sexy,” Cordelia admitted, accepting the pail of popcorn.

“Cordy, you live on a Hellmouth,” Xander pointed out. “How can you of all people find vampires sexy?”

“I like movie vampires. They always dress well and they never try to get into my home....”

When Giles finally drifted into sleep, Oz and Xander were debating the merits of why there weren’t more werewolves and less vampires, on the grounds that everyone had something vaguely stake-shaped in their house but almost no one kept a stash of silver bullets.

“For which I’m personally quite grateful,” Oz admitted.

Angel still seemed to be objecting to everything Bram Stoker had written, and Cordelia was critiquing the nightgowns every single female in the film seemed to wear at all times.

“All I’m saying is - no way do you get that kind of lift without corsetry, so were these bodiced nightgowns, or are we just supposed to believe that they had time to pull on their corset under the nightgowns before they got bitten...?”

It was a great relief to Giles when sheer exhaustion intervened and he drifted off to another dream about vampires, corsetry, and the inevitable pilchards.

***

Ethan surprised everyone, perhaps including himself, by turning up on Giles’s doorstep at ten a.m. He was carrying a bag full of magical ingredients, and had a cheerful smile for Wesley, who looked nothing other than pleased to see him.

“Hello, Mr. Rayne.”

“Hello, Wesley. How are you today?”

“Very well, thank you, Mr Rayne. How are you?”

“I’m very well too.” Ethan looked across at Giles. “And I’d really like to stay that way.” He ruffled Wesley’s hair and made his way across to the dining room table where he offloaded his bag with a grunt. “I suppose this is a lesson to me in why we were always told never to cut corners in spell preparation, but, have you seen the price of twice-blessed sage these days?” Looking around at their anxious and hostile faces, he rolled his eyes. “A cup of tea would be nice, Rip - ” Glancing across at Wesley’s curious face, he coughed. “Rupert. Earl Grey if you’ve got it.”

“You can have Tetleys and like it,” Giles told him shortly.

Buffy glowered at Ethan. “Remember what we told you last night.”

“Oh, will you people lighten up? I’m here as agreed and I have the ingredients as agreed.”

Wesley watched with interest as Ethan unpacked his bag and Ethan leant down, picked him up - everyone took a step forward and hissed at that - and then placed him carefully on the table where he could see what was going on. “Wesley likes magic, don’t you, Wesley?”

Wesley nodded, watching wide-eyed as Ethan removed crystals, an orb, bones, a clawed foot, and various bags of herbs and powders from his rather battered Gladstone bag. “Yes, Mr. Rayne.”

Ethan looked across at Giles, who was hovering anxiously. “He had a lot of potential when he was a child. Unfortunately his father didn’t like him exploring that area of his talents. Much too much like having fun. How good is he as an adult?”

Giles exchanged a glance with Buffy. “Well… he hasn’t really been in Sunnydale very long. There hasn’t been much cause to… We don’t know.”

“Do you want to know what marks you got at school, Wesley?” Ethan enquired.

Wesley looked at him open-mouthed. “Can I do that?”

“You did all the work so I don’t really see why not.” He turned to Giles. “Did they send you his paperwork?”

Giles remembered Wesley flourishing some credentials at him on the first day, to which he had not paid much attention, too busy phoning the Council to check that this Watcher wasn’t actually…freelance.

“I think so.”

“And you didn’t check them?”

“I checked them, I just didn’t read them.” Giles went to the briefcase in which Wesley kept his paperwork and opened it. “Here it is.” He wasn’t even sure why he was letting Ethan push them all around except that Wesley seemed to like him, which meant, miraculously, that in his previous meetings with Wesley, Ethan had never actually done anything unpleasant to him.

Ethan opened the folder and then went still and Giles saw he was looking at the identification picture of Wesley in the top right hand corner. “You look like Dick,” he said. He glanced at the little boy again. “So much like him in fact that if…” He didn’t finish that sentence and as Giles had no doubt it would have contained an unwarranted slur about the virtue of Wesley’s mother, he was glad he hadn’t done so.

Wesley peered at the papers curiously and Ethan turned them over to find his final marks. “Look at that, Wesley. You got an ‘A’ in Mystical Studies in your finals. That’s the theory and practical. Well done.”

Wesley smiled up at him as Ethan went through his marks. “Good Lord, Wesley, you got ‘A’s in everything. How many languages were you taking?”

Wesley looked under Ethan’s arm at the page with his final marks. “I studied Demonic Languages! I always wanted to learn those.”

Ethan’s eyes widened as he counted up the classes take and exams passed. “You know more than Uncle Rupert here. Actually, although it pains me to say it, I think you know more than me.”

Wesley’s face fell as he read on. “It says that I have problems with social skills and find it difficult to make friends, and that I have a problem with self-confidence that could cause me to react badly to pressure or criticism. It says here ‘there is still a question mark concerning Wesley’s leadership abilities’.”

Ethan gazed at the little boy in mild amusement. “Well, given Daddy’s idea of building up your self-esteem, I think that’s to be expected, don’t you?”

But Wesley still looked downcast. “I sound really stupid.”

Ethan waved the exam marks under his nose. “No one who can get an ‘A’ in fifteen different subjects is ‘stupid’, Wesley. But I would imagine that the level of study required to achieve these marks probably didn’t leave a lot of time for…socializing.”

Wesley grimaced. “I’m a boring little swot, aren’t I?”

Ethan laughed. “Quite possibly. But I’m sure you can grow out of it.”

“Uncle Richard wasn’t boring, was he?”

“No, Wesley, he certainly wasn’t, which means the sparks of rebellion must be in you somewhere. We just need to…feed the flames.”

Buffy looked at Giles. “Are we accepting Ethan as a role model for Wesley now?”

“Most emphatically not,” Giles assured her.

Ethan was still avidly reading his file. “It says here that you can read and translate Geshundi, Wesley. That’s an absolute bi- um bugger of a language. And - my goodness - you took extra classes in early Fallorian on top of all your other studies and passed with flying colours.”

“Good Lord,” Giles observed.

Buffy said, “What? What’s wrong with that?”

Giles took off his glasses. “Nothing, it’s just - remarkably difficult.”

“Didn’t you fail your Fallorian exam?” Ethan observed.

Giles glowered at him. “Yes, and thank you for reminding me.”

“I remember Doctor Lister read your exam paper out in class and said that your translation of a passage of Shakespeare into Fallorian had Benedict doing something most unseemly to a chicken.”

“It’s a very difficult language,” Giles protested. “An inverted serif can alter the meaning of an entire passage.”

Oz frowned. “So - Wesley - Big Wesley being able to do magic and translate all these different languages that even Giles doesn’t know - isn’t that something we should have known about? It sounds as if it would have been useful.”

“Yes, it does rather.” Giles grimaced. “We’ve all been rather busy, of course…”

Wesley looked down at his hands. “I’m not being very useful like this, am I? Willow and Cordelia and Xander and Oz all got hurt trying to protect me because I’m too little to protect myself.”

Giles and Angel exchanged a brief glance as they silently acknowledged that Wesley hadn’t been a lot of use at protecting himself when adult either.

“Hey, it was the least I could do,” Cordelia observed. “You saved my life, after all.”

Wesley looked surprised. “I did?”

“He did?” Buffy and Giles both chorused.

Cordelia frowned. “Didn’t I mention it? When that evil Willow was here. I let her out of the book-cage and then she - vamped out and was going to kill me, only Wesley turned up and waved a crucifix and some holy water at her and she went away again.”

“No, Cordelia,” Giles said crisply. “You didn’t mention it. And when we came back to the Library there was no sign of you or Wesley.”

Cordelia grimaced. “Well, I was too shaken up to drive so I had to ask him to take me home.”

“You were putting the moves on him,” Xander said disdainfully.

“He was a perfect gentleman,” she retorted.

“Much to your disappointment.”

Wesley looked between them wide-eyed and Buffy nudged Cordelia, just as Willow elbowed Xander, who looked at Wesley and said, “You didn’t hear any of that, okay?”

Wesley nodded. “Okay.”

Giles snatched a breath. “Cordelia, you could have called me to let me know that the - Vampire Willow was at large, and you could also have mentioned to me that Wesley had saved your life.”

Cordelia shrugged. “I figured Willow was a vampire and you probably knew. She was locked in your bookcage. And why did you need me to tell you Wesley saved me anyway? Isn’t that pretty much what Watchers do?”

Giles grimaced. “Well, yes....” He glanced across at Buffy. “Absolutely. It would just have been nice to know.”

Buffy drew him to one side and murmured: “So, apart from us finding out that Wesley’s actually pretty brave, resourceful, chivalrous, and top of his class in…everything, nothing’s really changed, has it?”

Giles sighed. “I think perhaps my allowing my - resentment at being replaced to prevent me from utilizing someone who could obviously have been an asset, is perhaps something I need to address but for now, no. We need to stabilize this spell and then continue to take care of Wesley as he is now. But, perhaps when he’s an adult again....”

“Giles, we all made up our minds about Wesley in about thirty seconds - and that includes Cordelia. If she hadn’t been on the rebound and he hadn’t looked pretty in a suit then she would have written him off as well.”

“Wonderful, so we were all as insightful as Cordelia in our dealings with him. Oddly enough, I’m not finding that such a comfort. Although in fairness to us, Wesley certainly did hide his light under a whole cartload of bushels.”

Giles turned back to find Ethan making a circle out of the magical ingredients on the floor while Wesley eagerly assisted him. “There’s a good lad. Chicken feet next. You’re supposed to do this with a piece of string attached to a pair of compasses to make a perfect circle but I usually do it by eye - and actually, if I’m showing you how to do it perhaps we ought to do it right.” Ethan glanced across at Giles. “Have you got a pair of compasses, a piece of string, and a piece of chalk, Rip-Rupert?”

Giles wordlessly found some and held them out, still thinking about those exam marks of Wesley’s that he hadn’t even bothered to look at, and that casual mention from Cordelia of Wesley having saved her life. Glancing across at Buffy he saw she was thinking the same thing.

When he looked back, Wesley was carefully drawing a chalk circle under Ethan’s direction while Ethan gave Giles the kind of smug look that suggested he knew very well Giles had written Wesley off three minutes after he walked through the door.

“Maybe when he’s big again he can give you a crash course in Fallorian, eh?” Ethan observed.

Giles refused to rise to the bait, looking at the little boy again who was following Ethan’s directions so obediently and with such absolute precision. He had saved Wesley’s life, it was true, but he had taught him absolutely nothing since he arrived in Sunnydale, except to feel defensive and to act pompous to compensate. “Maybe he can,” he returned mildly. “We’re none of us too old to learn.”

Ethan shrugged and handed Wesley a crystal. “Next to the sage, there’s a good lad....”

Giles insisted that Ethan went through with him exactly what the stabilizing spell would involve, while Ethan rolled his eyes at Giles’ objections. “Yes, I need some of his blood, but we’re talking a pinprick here.”

“It’s it being mingled with yours I’m not so keen on.”

“I’m the spellcaster, he’s the…spellcastee. I need to establish a link between us so that I can stabilize the spell. Now, do you want the spell stabilized or not, because if not I may as well show Wesley some nice easy levitation spells he might enjoy.”

“Oh.” Willow looked interested. “Could you show them to me too?”

Giles gave her a Look and she subsided, murmuring: “Sorry.”

“You really have got horribly boring, Ripper.” Ethan shook his head. “Magic is meant to be fun.”

“Magic is a serious and dangerous business that risks corrupting those who access it and opening gateways to worlds of....”

“Oh, do put a sock in it,” Ethan pleaded. “I had quite enough of all your sanctimonious claptrap in the good old days. Now, do you want me to stabilize the spell or not?”

“If any harm comes to him....” Giles began.

“Yes, I know, your pet demon gets to peel my skin off. Charming. Now, shall we get on?”

“I’m not Giles’ pet,” Angel protested.

“No, you’re Buffy’s, big diff,” Cordelia retorted. “Let’s let Band Candy guy do his whacky magic mojo, shall we?”

“I’m not anyone’s ‘pet’,” Angel muttered petulantly, as Ethan picked up a knife and stepped into the circle. He sat down cross-legged and nodded to Wesley.

At a reluctant nod from Giles, Buffy very unwillingly picked up Wesley. “Ethan, if you have any shred of decency....”

“Actually, I don’t. This has nothing to do with decency. Now, are you going to let me do this or not…?”

Buffy placed Wesley in the circle and he looked at Ethan expectantly. “What do I have to do, Mr Rayne?”

“Sit opposite me, on the other side of the amulet, that’s right. Now, I’m going to have to cut your hand with this knife and it is going to hurt a little bit. Can you be a brave for me, Wesley?”

Wesley gazed up at him trustingly. “Yes, Mr. Rayne.”

They were both sitting in the circle, with the amulet between them, only a foot separating them and the knife in Ethan’s hand. Giles could not in any way feel that this was a good idea and yet what other choice did they have? It was Ethan’s spell. He and Buffy exchanged an anxious look and she whispered: “There are no words for how much I don’t like this set up.”

Ethan took Wesley’s hand in his and cut across his palm. Wesley winced with pain and tears sprang into his eyes but he bravely didn’t cry out. Ethan held his palm over the amulet and let the blood drip onto it, then cut his own palm and let his blood drip on top of Wesley’s, then he clasped his bloody palm against Wesley’s, took his other hand in his and began the incantation.

Wesley looked scared but fascinated, as Ethan’s eyes went black, a wind began to whistle around them both, snatching up all the crystals, herbs, claws and stones that surrounded them and dissolving them into dust. There was a flash of purple light and a bang and then everything was still and Ethan’s eyes returned to their normal colour. He snatched a breath and smiled at Wesley. “I told you magic was fun.”

“It is.” Wesley looked around in excitement. “Can we do some more?”

“Not right now.” Giles looked a question at Ethan who nodded and Giles picked him up and sat the little boy on his hip. He was aware of Buffy hovering anxiously, but right now, after seeing Wesley in that circle with Ethan, he needed a moment with the boy to calm his shattered nerves.

“He has it in him.” Ethan rose to his feet and dusted himself off. “I can always tell.”

“Oh…” Willow looked at him hopefully. “Do I have any power?”

“Will, you re-ensouled Angel, you must have,” Buffy said. “And there’s the whole - pencil spinning thing.”

Ethan looked at the playmobil battlefield and then glanced at Willow. “Want to find out…?”

Giles became aware that Buffy was bandaging Wesley’s hand with the care one might usually lavish on a sucking chest wound as opposed to a shallow cut. “It doesn’t hurt that much,” Wesley reassured her.

She felt his forehead anxiously. “You’re sure you feel okay?”

“Yes. Did you see the way those things all swirled around?”

“Yes, Wesley,” Giles assured him.

“Wasn’t it super?” He looked so excited that Giles didn’t have the heart to give him the ‘magic is very dangerous and should only be performed when no other options are available and only when very carefully supervised’ speech, but suspected that he was going to have to deliver it often after Ethan had left to make up for the rush of being in the middle of such a powerful spell.

“A cup of tea would be nice, Rupert,” Ethan observed casually, sitting on a cushion by the slightly battered battlements of the Baronial castle.

Giles opened his mouth to retort and then became aware of Wesley looking up at him and was forced to swallow the first three things he wanted to say.

“Why don’t I put the kettle on?” Buffy suggested, quickly. “Then we could all have tea…” And not fight in front of Wesley her eyes added.

“Fine.” Giles carried Wesley to where Willow was sitting and sat down next to her, still keeping Wesley on his lap where Ethan could not reach him easily. For all the little boy’s excitement he was still trembling slightly, the shock of the pain of having his hand cut, and then the adrenaline rush of the spell, leaving him limp and more than a little shaken. He seemed quite content to sit quietly on Giles’ lap even as Ethan began to direct military operations from the castle, and Xander, Oz, and Angel began to move the pieces around.

“I’m not doing this because you said so,” Xander told Ethan firmly. “Just because it makes sense.”

Ethan said casually to Willow: “We are going to overrun your peaceful little fairyland and slaughter all the inhabitants just for fun unless you stop us. I’m sure you’ve practised a few harmless little animaviva spells…?”

Willow glanced up at Giles nervously. “Well…maybe one or two but only because they could be useful…”

“There is no such thing as a ‘harmless little’ spell, Ethan,” Giles pointed out.

“Oh, do stow it, Rupert.” Ethan waved a hand and the pirate ship began to slide towards the fairy bower, the pirates slowly raising their weapons, while on the castle battlements the now-animated plastic knights were picking up their swords. “A brief skirmish, I think,” Ethan glanced across at Willow and Giles in amusement. “Just to demonstrate what we can do…”

Wesley watched wide-eyed as Ethan magicked the pirates down from the ship and had them throw up little grappling hooks to the castle walls.

“You know you could do that just moving the pieces around,” Giles pointed out.

“But doesn’t it look so much cooler like this?” Ethan purred.

“He really is corruption incarnate,” Giles observed to Willow.

She said, “Ye-es…” but she was wide-eyed and fascinated all the same and Giles could see her fingers twitching as she longed to join in.

Wesley said in wonder: “The pirates are climbing up the castle walls.”

“That is so cool.” Xander looked across at Giles. “In a - really bad way. Colour me so not impressed by this frivolous misuse of the dark arts.”

“ILM eat your hearts out,” Oz murmured.

Angel looked at the pirates curiously. “I always had my doubts about Harryhausen. The word on the street was that he was just a warlock and the whole stop-motion animation thing was a cover story.”

Buffy came in with the tea and said in confusion: “The pirates are moving - and the little knight people… Giles, why are the people moving?”

“Ethan is showing off,” Giles returned. He handed Wesley his tea and the little boy sipped it without even blinking, so intent was he on watching the pirates climbing up the walls and the knights waving their swords and firing arrows down at him. His eyes were huge and he was rapt with excitement. Seeing the look on his face, Giles didn’t have the heart to tell Ethan to pack it in, even though he was setting such a bad example.

There was a volley of arrow fire from the playmobile archers, cannonfire from the pirate ship, cannonfire from the castle defenders and then the pirates were falling down the battlements and the knights were waving their swords in the air in triumph. Wesley looked up at Giles, anxiously, clearly loving the display but worried it might be wrong, and Giles plastered on a smile. “Do you want to go and play?”

“May I?”

“Of course you may.” Giles looked across at Ethan. “I’m sure Mr. Rayne will make sure things don’t get out of hand.”

Ethan smiled at Wesley and patted him on the head as he came over to join them. “When you’re older, Wesley, I really must introduce you to the pleasures of pure chaos, but for now I think we’ll stick with manning the battlements…”

Giles was sure that Ethan knew very well that it was no picnic for him to have to sit here and be civil to the man while he played around with magic in front of his young, impressionable charges, but Ethan also seemed to be enjoying making Giles squirm so much that he wasn’t doing anything to justify Giles kicking him out. He supposed if it put a leash on Ethan’s more anti social behaviour for a few hours it was probably worth it.

Xander and Wesley both looked equally wide-eyed at the sight of Ethan’s little plastic army turning into a well-oiled machine, all raising their swords in unison. Ethan looked across at Willow: “If you’re going to mount a defensive barrier, you really had better do it now because we will be fire-bombing your little glade otherwise…”

Willow said primly: “I don’t use magic for frivolous matters because…”

As a hail of flaming arrows shot through the sky she hastily muttered an incantation and the arrows were all doused on her invisible barrier. She looked sheepishly at Giles. “He made me do it.”

Giles looked back at Ethan’s smug smile and just knew the man wanted him to join in, to wallow in the pleasure of frivolous magic one last time. It would, of course, be a very bad example to set both Willow and Wesley and, ultimately, what did it matter if Ethan’s side won a skirmish taking place between inanimate…?”

Ethan flicked his fingers and a cannonball thudded into the fairytale castle and splatted the fairy princess into the wall. Giles looked at Willow’s dismayed face and then said shortly: “All right, Ethan, you’re on…”

“Finally!” Cordelia picked up a chicken foot and held it out. “So, what do we do?”

Within minutes Ethan was sending Xander for ingredients from his bag and Giles asked Buffy and Cordelia to fetch his spell books. “This is a one off,” he warned them. “This must never happen again.”

“Just make sure you beat him!” Cordelia retorted.

Wesley winced as Ethan sent more flaming cannonballs into the fairytale castle and hurried over to pat Willow’s hand sympathetically. Buffy said, “Okay, now we have two Watchers and a Witch and the boys’ team only has one old chaos mage.”

“Less of the ‘old’ if you don’t mind, Ms Summers,” Ethan retorted.

Willow was already scrambling through spell books trying to find animation spells while Wesley helped her, Buffy and Cordelia fetched ingredients under Giles’ directions and ducked fiery arrows that Ethan kept sending across.

“Wow, this rocks…” Xander exclaimed. “Although only in a totally irresponsible and never to be repeated, yes sirree, kind of way.”

“Yes, indeed,” Oz confirmed. “I could hardly be more disapproving.”

“Me too.” Angel pointed to the Viking ship. “Can you animate that?”

“No fair!” Willow protested. “You have the knights and the cannons and now you get the ship as well?”

“But you have two Watchers to help you,” Xander protested. “We need the Viking ship to balance things up.”

Ethan waved his fingers and the prow of the Viking longship that was in the shape of a dragon’s head turned from plastic into scales and began to belch fire. Willow said anxiously: “Little fairy glade under attack!”

Giles shoved an open spell book under her nose and muttered a quick incantation - pausing midway to say to Wesley: “Don’t try this at home” - before causing a breeze to billow the longboat sails the other way and send it swirling backwards.

Willow pounced on the spell Giles had given her and said: “Oh yes!” Then looking across at Xander, Oz and Angel who were all gazing at her, said, “Or - ‘oh no’ as in ‘I haven’t yet located the correct spell so you can just continue in blissful ignorance and the expectation of imminent victory’…”

“And suddenly Willow’s projected career as a professional poker player isn’t looking so rosy,” Xander observed. He turned to Ethan. “Can you make napalm?”

Willow began to whisper urgently in Wesley’s ear and he nodded and scampered off to fetch half the contents of the herb rack.

Giles had to concentrate to keep off the Viking longboat that Ethan was trying to send back to pillage their fairytale castle. He was quite certain that animated Vikings getting into the Fairytale castle would produce scenes that Wesley should certainly not be seeing and that would probably traumatize Willow for life.

“Incoming arrows!” Cordelia flapped at them with a tea towel.

“That’s cheating!” Xander protested.

“Yes, Cordelia, I really think it is,” Giles observed. He muttered an incantation that sent the longboat spinning across the floor and threw up a protective shield as the next wave of arrows came across. “That however is entirely permissible.”

Willow was holding Wesley’s hand as she did the incantation while he solemnly handed her the objects she asked for, sprinkling sage onto the fairy glade as directed, and then adding a pinch of various spices.

“What are they doing?” Xander enquired suspiciously.

“Something defensive,” Angel said.

“Something sneaky,” Oz guessed.

Wesley tossed another handful of spice over the main tree in the fairy glade and everyone on the other team looked at it anxiously.

“It’s going to go all Treebeard on us, I just know it…” Xander murmured.

Willow murmured something, waved her hands and as Giles and Ethan battled for supremacy of the Viking longboat, she looked up with her eyes black and said: “Something very sneaky…”

Which was when the animated dragon sprang up from the dungeon and flapped its wings, breathing magical fire down onto the playpeople knights who all dropped their swords and cowered on the ground.

Wesley tugged urgently at Willow’s sleeve. “The barrier!”

Willow said: “Oh!” and began to look through the book while keeping the dragon under imperfect control, it now swooping over the battlements a little drunkenly but keeping off the arrows aimed at it by bellows of magic fire. Then Giles quickly muttered an incantation, the barrier around the fairytale castle dissolved, and the dragon flew triumphantly over the battlements.

“We win!” Cordelia shouted.

“You so lose,” Buffy added.

Angel, Xander and Oz exchanged looks of dismay which turned into a smirk of pride from Oz as Willow picked up Wesley and swung him around, saying: “Classic use of misdirection! As instructed in chapter three!”

Wesley giggled and said triumphantly to Xander: “You thought it was the fairy glade! But it wasn’t!” He was still giggling helplessly as she put him down. He pointed at the herb-sprinkled oak tree. “That’s just thyme. It isn’t even magical!”

“Very well strategised, you two,” Giles told them warmly. He grimaced as he saw the dragon was still animated and tramping around the fairytale castle. “But - um, Willow, you might want to - de-animate the dragon now…?”

Willow and Wesley exchanged a look. “We didn’t look that up yet,” Wesley admitted.

“We’ll do it now.” Willow hastily opened the book while Cordelia and Buffy also grabbed spellbooks.

Xander said, “You do know your dragon is like - totally trashing the fairytale palace there, Willow?”

“We still won!” she protested fiercely.

Ethan shrugged. “I think they’ve just demonstrated a pyrrhic victory for all to see.”

While scrambling through spell books himself, Giles said automatically to Wesley: “Do you understand that reference, Wesley?”

“Yes, Uncle Giles,” the little boy was still frantically turning pages. “It means when the victors’ losses are as great as the losers’, and it comes from when Pyrrhus defeated the Romans at…um…was it Asculum?”

“Yes, it was.” Giles beamed at him proudly and turned to Ethan. “You know this boy really is extraordinarily advanced for his years…” As everyone just looked at him, he coughed. “Not that I’m condoning his father’s approach to child-rearing, I’m just pointing out that Wesley is - well, anyway - de-animation spells…”

It took ten minutes to de-activate the animated dragon, by which time the fairytale castle was looking distinctly scorched, however the victory for what Buffy persisted in annoying Giles by referring to as the ‘Girls’ team’ still held.

Ethan rose to his feet with what looked like an expression of genuine regret on his face. “Well, I’d better go. Chaos doesn’t just happen by itself - well, it does, actually, but one can always have more.”

Giles accompanied him to the door. “Well, Ethan, I suppose thanks are in order. Actually, no, come to think of it, they’re not. It’s your fault Wesley’s a child in the first place. This really was the least you could do.”

Ethan rolled his eyes. “Gracious as ever, I see, Ripper.” He held out a hand to Wesley who came up and shook it politely.

“Goodbye, Mr Rayne. Thank you for showing me those spells. They were wonderful.”

“You’re very welcome, Wesley.” Ethan patted him on the head again and looked at Giles with a grin. “I hope to get an opportunity to corrupt you further when you’re restored to your normal age.”

“Don’t count on it,” Giles told him grimly. “Ten days, you say, before the spell wears off and Wesley’s restored…?”

Ethan nodded. He looked at the playmobil debris over which Oz, Cordelia and Xander were already arguing as they set up another game. “You’d better make the most of it.”

Buffy picked up Wesley who snuggled in against her, resting his head on her shoulder. She looked at Ethan levelly. “We intend to.”

Ethan reached out and ruffled his hair again. “Be good, Wesley - but not too good. Remember, everyone needs a little chaos in their lives…”

And then he was gone and Giles and Buffy exchanged a sigh of relief. “That was so much fun,” Wesley said in awed tones. “Can we do some more spells tomorrow, Uncle Giles?”

“Perhaps,” Giles said. “But in the meantime, why don’t you go and get ready for lunch and perhaps if we ask Xander very nicely he’ll go and buy us something unhealthy that we can all enjoy.”

Xander had already sprung to his feet. “Fries, pizza, and donuts?”

“I don’t know if I mean quite that unhealthy…” Giles looked anxiously after Wesley.

“Giles, he’s going to be a little kid for ten more days. You can feed him entirely on deep fried Snickers bars if you want to, it’s not going to make any difference.”

Giles sighed and handed over his wallet. “Whatever you say. But if you find something with some green vegetables in it, I’d be grateful.”

Buffy looked at Xander: “He’s so not getting this, is he?”

“Never mind, there’s still time to educate him.”

Giles watched the two of them head off to get food, while Wesley, having washed his hands, ran over to see how the new game was progressing, Angel automatically perching the little boy on his shoulders before going back to arguing with Cordelia about the acceptable range of a cannonball.

“It’s going to be a very short ten days,” Willow sighed.

Giles looked down at her. “Yes, I’m afraid it will be.”

As Cordelia poked Angel in the chest and waved a unicorn at him, Giles grimaced. “Or perhaps not…”

***