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He had known Giles would be less than thrilled by the idea of him seeing Buffy again. He wasn’t too happy about it himself, but this was an emergency and he was determined to make Giles see that.

“She has enough on her plate right now, Angel. Dawn. Glory. Her mother’s death. Seeing you again is the last thing she needs.”

“Giles, this isn’t my idea of fun either but I don’t have a choice. The three people who work for me have been hexed into being small vulnerable children and the evil law firm just across the way that spends its days trying to drive me crazy is going to phone Social Services and get them taken into care the second it gets wind of what’s happening here. For all I know they manufactured the situation, have someone watching us, and have already started making calls. I have to get them out of LA tonight and I need someone to help me reverse the spell.”

Giles sighed heavily. “Let me talk to Buffy.”

“I’ll wait.”

“I was planning to phone you back.”

“I’ll wait,” Angel repeated grimly.

There was a pause when he could hear the far off mumble of conversation. He thought he heard Willow and Xander as well as the quiet sound of Buffy’s voice. It was strange to think of her there in that house, where he had once slept beside her bed, her life continuing just as his continued while the thread between them became more and more stretched.

“Angel…?”

The shock of her voice still made him catch his breath; even though he didn't need to breathe, somehow she could make him remember he'd once had lungs that needed to inhale and exhale. “Buffy?”

“Bring them. Giles and Willow are researching reversal spells. You can all stay here until they’re cured.”

“Thank you.” He couldn’t tell her how wonderful she was, but he hoped she could hear the warmth and relief in his voice. “Can you ask Xander not to…?”

“Tease Cordelia? No one is making any promises on that, Angel. Or Wesley either.” He could imagine how her smile would look right now, the way it would be there in her eyes, in the warmth she had that was so vital it even made someone without a heartbeat feel warmed inside as well. “You’ve got to let us have some fun.”

“You’re perfect,” he told her. Not what he’d been meaning to say but what he was thinking.

“Oh, I know. I reek of perfection. Ask anyone who doesn’t actually know me.”

“I know you.”

“I know. Better than anyone.” The smile was still there but the tenderness made him catch his breath. “Giles says don’t forgot to bring the amulet and orb. Xander says to tell Cordelia he’s buying more film for the camera.”

“I’ll be with you - be in Sunnydale tonight.” He put down the phone and imagined Giles in the background shaking his head, Xander and Willow exchanging those ‘fasten your seatbelts’ expressions. But this trip to Sunnydale wasn’t about him and Buffy and their Love That Could Not Be. It was about his friends. Keeping them safe and getting them back.

He plastered a bright smile onto his face and walked back into the lobby. Gunn was sucking his thumb, he noticed, doing nothing to downplay the cute factor that was undoubtedly going to be the bane of the demon killer’s days until he was adult-sized again. Wesley looked skinny and scared and determined. Angel could actually see him squaring those narrow shoulders against what was coming next, still protectively holding onto Cordelia and Gunn as he did so. He had gone from only child to eldest child in a heartbeat and already seemed to be weighed under with the responsibility of his new position. Cordelia was an impossibly pretty little girl, all big brown eyes, and a pouting mouth. She had her head on Wesley’s shoulder and was whimpering quietly about how she was never going to be able to wear her new clothes and how could she be Vision Girl when she couldn’t even understand what she was seeing?

“Angel will find a way to reverse it,” said Wesley softly. “And then we can go back to being who we really are.”

“What if this is who we really are now?” Cordelia asked sadly. “What if we’re being punished for not living our lives right the first time and the Powers That Be are going to make us redo it over and over again until we get it right?”

Wesley shuddered and tightened his grip on Gunn. “Why would they? We’re not that bad.”

“Aren’t we?” Cordelia slumped against him. “Perhaps we are. I think I was.”

“I'm not being four years old again,” Gunn mumbled crossly, before taking his thumb out of his mouth and looking at it accusingly. “I can’t reach anything and even real shortasses are taller than me now. And no way in hell am I going through puberty twice.”

Wesley groaned and bowed his head. “I'm going to forget everything that makes me…me. I'm going to be that stupid boy again. The one who knocks things over and who gets things wrong and whom no one likes.”

Cordelia said softly, “Wes, you knock things over and get things wrong all the time, but we still like you.”

“You weren’t around when I was growing up.”

“This time we will be,” Gunn observed glumly.

Wesley tightened his grip on them, trying to be brave and looking very small and fragile in his oversized shirt. “Well then, perhaps it won’t be so bad this time.”

Angel cleared his throat. “Giles and Willow are already researching reversal spells and Buffy says we’re welcome to stay with her. Why don’t I get you something to drink? There’s Coke in the fridge.” He edged away but kept listening to their conversation, feeling so sorry for them it hurt as they slumped in the lobby so despondently.

“I bet they’re all loving this,” Cordelia said bitterly.

“Buffy’s mother only died a few months ago, Cordy,” said Wesley gently. “I doubt they’re loving anything right now. Seeing as Buffy never liked me and doesn’t know Gunn I think it’s kind of her to take us in.”

Cordelia muttered something unladylike under her breath and Gunn took his thumb out of his mouth again to say, “Should you be saying things like that in front of me? And if this Buffy chick doesn’t like Wes I'm not going to like her.”

“She’s a vampire slayer and a very pretty girl,” Wesley told him wearily. “You’ll probably be in love with her two steps across the threshold. Well, until she coos over how cute you are and tries to take a picture of you sucking your thumb, of course…”

Gunn hit Wesley on the arm. “Shut up.”

“It would be just like Buffy to make a big fuss of Gunn and ignore me.” Cordelia looked down her nose at Gunn. “I always knew I’d hate to have a younger brother who got all the attention and was spoilt by everyone and I think I was so right.”

“Like you weren’t spoilt,” Gunn retorted.

“Don’t fight,” Wesley said. “Angel will get cross.”

“We’re too little to get cross with,” Cordelia returned triumphantly.

“It doesn’t work like that,” Wesley sighed.

Angel felt a chill go through him. Pouring them some Coke in assorted mugs and cups, he carried them back out to the lobby and crouched down with them. “This is just temporary, remember?”

Wesley’s blue eyes begged him to be telling the truth but out loud he only said, “Of course it is.” But Angel saw the way his and Cordelia’s fingers intertwined a little more tightly and Gunn put his thumb back in his mouth before cuddling up against Wesley for comfort.

Angel guessed that the only people who could really know how it felt to be them right now was them but he mentally promised that if Xander Harris started making fun of any of his munchkins, he was going to throw him through a window without bothering to open it first.

***

Xander had to admit he was enjoying the prospect of seeing Cordelia and Wesley as little kids. It was freaky, of course. Truly freaky. But Cordelia had been Miss Snotty Princess for most of his formative years and their break up hadn’t exactly been painless. And Wesley had been a pompous English twerp who had been prepared to sacrifice Willow for the sake of following the Watcher Handbook, and who had tried to steal his ex-girlfriend through underhanded use of an English accent, a surface layer of suave sophistication, and the unfair advantage of being an adult. He didn’t know Gunn, but given the company he kept he doubted he would have liked him much, so perhaps being turned into a small child was something he deserved too.

“This must be very difficult for them.” Giles sounded grave and responsible but Xander suspected he was trying not to smirk as he took off his glasses to clean them. “Let’s try not to make it harder than it already is.”

Xander peered out of the window again. They should be here any minute, barring accidents. Angel would have had to take them to the bathroom on the way down. That was funny. He couldn’t believe anyone didn’t find that funny.

“I know what you’re thinking,” Buffy told him. “And I'm going to smack you if you keep thinking it.”

“Angel having to babysit Cordelia? Don’t tell me that isn’t funny?” Xander looked across at Willow. “You remember what Cordy was like as a little girl, right, Will? She used to throw tantrums if the teacher tried to make her use finger paints that didn’t coordinate with her outfit.”

“I wonder what Wesley was like as a child,” Willow mused.

“Very proper and English,” Buffy put in. “I bet he always did his homework the second he got home.”

Giles thought of Roger Wyndam-Pryce and frowned. “I imagine his father would have insisted on it.”

“You know Wesley’s father?” Xander looked at him in surprise.

Giles shrugged. “I’ve met him. I wouldn’t say I know him. Rather an austere man as I recall. Not very easy to please. I remember someone congratulating him when Wesley was made Head Boy of the Watcher’s Academy. His response was to say that there couldn’t have been very much competition that year.”

Xander’s face fell. “He sounds like my father. Don’t go making me feel sorry for Wesley. I was happy in my gloating place.”

“They’re here,” said Tara quietly. “Or someone is in a big black convertible.”

“That will be Angel,” Xander sniffed. “Always has to make the big entrance.”

Giles took the dignified approach of standing back while Xander and Willow unashamedly peered from behind the drapes. Buffy took a deep breath, called to Dawn that the visitors were here and then went to the door.

Xander watched as Angel got out of the car then went around and opened the passenger door. In the streetlight, he caught a glimpse of a thin pale little boy in clothes that were too big for him who went to the back of the car to open the door for a little girl dressed in a pale frock. Cordelia. Unexpectedly he got a lump in his throat. She was so small. And scared. She was lifting her chin in that defiant way he remembered from the past, tossing her head back so anyone peering from behind the drapes wouldn’t know how scared she was but he knew her too well, and he could see it in her spine, in her eyes. She held on tight to the hand of the boy next to her and he tried to equate these two with Wesley making sheep’s eyes at Cordelia while she embarrassed herself trying to get him to help her with her homework. He could see how painfully aware they were of their size; how tall the lampposts looked to them, how the houses loomed.

Buffy had the door open and they heard the boy who had to be Wesley say quietly, “It’s all right, Cordelia. These people are your friends, remember?”

“I don’t care,” she said defiantly. “I'm not scared of them.”

He smiled at her weakly. “Good, that means at least one of us isn’t.”

“I'm not scared of anyone.” A small coffee-coloured child who had to be Gunn jumped out of the car and landed with a belligerent thump on the sidewalk. He looked up at Angel. “Your driving sucks.”

“If you’d eaten less ice cream you might not have felt so sick,” Angel returned levelly, picking him up.

“Where’s my axe?” Gunn demanded.

Wesley gazed up at him. “Charles, you can’t even lift it. Wait until you’re big again.”

“You brought your book!”

“I can still read my book. And it might be useful in reversing the spell. Please, don’t make a scene. Everyone’s watching.”

“Let them watch.” Cordelia tried to toss her hair back defiantly, but it was too short and just swung prettily. Xander noticed she was still gripping Wesley’s hand.

Wesley gave Angel a begging look and the vampire rested his hand on his shoulder. “It’s going to be fine,” he told him. “Giles and Willow will reverse the spell and everyone in that house is a friend.”

“I hate being small,” Wesley murmured.

“Try being my size,” Gunn retorted crossly.

“Try having to wear off the rack clothes that make you look like Pollyanna,” Cordelia returned. “I thought better of Lorne.”

“You look very nice,” Wesley told her. “And Lorne had a lot of things to buy with very little money.”

Xander noticed that even with a belt cinched tight on its last hole, Wesley’s trousers were too big for him and he had his shirt cuffs folded back several times and secured with safety pins.

Unexpectedly, Cordelia reached out and straightened his collar for him. “You’re smarter than any of them,” she told him rapidly. “Don’t let them pick on you.”

“Is that what they think of us?” Xander demanded of Willow in an undertone. “They think we fight vampires by night and bully small children by day?”

“They’re so small,” Willow breathed. “I never thought I’d want to cuddle Cordelia but now I really do.”

“We did kind of bully Wesley when he was here as an adult,” Buffy admitted.

“He was annoying,” Xander returned. “And not just a little bit annoying. He was off the scale annoying.”

“I know.” But she sounded a little sorry all the same.

They had gathered in the hallway to welcome them in; Angel and his strange family; and the resemblance to refugees was hard to avoid. Angel was carrying Gunn in his right arm, the small boy belligerently sucking his thumb at them; the vampire’s other hand available for Wesley to grip onto, which the boy seemed to be doing with all his might. Wesley was trying not to stagger under the weight of a leather shoulder bag while holding Cordelia’s hand in his left.

“Hi,” Buffy said awkwardly. “How was the trip down?”

“Fine, thank you,” said Wesley politely. “Thank you for taking us in. I'm sorry for your loss.”

It was strange to hear him sound so adult but it occurred to Xander that the child Wesley had been might have said exactly the same thing. Buffy was saying something welcoming, he noticed, and Giles was making introductions of a kind.

Cordelia looked at him uncertainly and Xander stepped forward. “Hello, Cordelia, it’s good to see you again. Hello, Wesley. This must be Gunn?”

“Charles Gunn.” The little boy stuck out a hand from his place on Angel’s shoulder and Xander shook it gravely. Gunn looked at Wesley. “Which one is he?”

“Xander.” Cordelia looked up at him a little shyly.

Xander crouched down to be her level. “I’d forgotten what a cute little girl you were, Cordy. You’re going to let me take pictures, right?”

“Only if Buffy will take me shopping first.” She plucked at her frock despondently. “This is so…not me.”

“Oh, Cordy,” Willow gasped. “You’re so…adorable. Can Tara and I take you shopping tomorrow? There is this dress in town that is the cutest thing I’ve ever seen and you would look so sweet in it.”

Cordy looked up at her. “Willow, you know I love you, right, but I wouldn’t be buried in any of the clothes you wear.”

“This is so you. You have to trust me.” Willow took her hand. “Hi again, Wesley. Nice to meet you, Gunn. Come and meet Tara, Cordy.”

“Oh my God!” That breathy squeal from Dawn made everyone jump.

Angel had been murmuring something apologetic to Buffy about being sorry to impose but even he jumped like a scalded cat at that sound and automatically looked over his shoulder. “What?”

Dawn was coming down the stairs as if mesmerized, her gaze fixed on Gunn. “Omigod, you are so cute.”

Wesley looked up at the little boy and sighed. “I told you.”

Gunn was still sucking his thumb and looking, Xander had to admit, like the poster child for cuteness. He glowered at Dawn, which unfortunately only made him look cuter.

“Let me have him.” She plucked Gunn out of Angel’s arms and sat him on her hip. “Want to come and watch cartoons with me?”

“Dawn…” Buffy breathed. “He’s older than you are, remember?”

Gunn looked at her sulkily for a moment and then tugged his thumb out of his mouth and said, “Okay. But only because you’re too young for me to be rude to you.”

“You’re the most adorable thing ever!” Dawn gave another squeal and hugged him. “Tomorrow, you have to meet all my friends.”

“He’s not a toy!” Angel shouted after her. “He kills demons for a…” But Dawn had whisked Gunn away to the living room. Angel and Wesley exchanged a glance of resignation and Angel held out a hand for the bag Wesley was carrying. “Let me take that, Wes. It’s heavy.”

“I’ve got it,” Xander said quickly. He gently took it from Wesley’s shoulder. The kid was so thin it made him have to breathe around something that hurt him inside. Cordelia, except for the short hair, looked exactly as he remembered Cordy looking at that age, when she’d used to pull his hair in Elementary School. So, this must have been how Wesley was at eight; this thin and pale and quiet. His dark hair was spiky and tousled, unlike the brylcreemed style he remembered him having, and the kid was clearly half-blind without his glasses, the blue eyes looking huge as he gazed around at what seemed to be a succession of blurs.

“Be careful with it,” Wesley said. “The amulet and orb are in there. And a couple of the research books I thought might be useful. There are some more in the car.” He looked up at Giles for the first time, as if having to steel himself to do so. “Hello again, Mr. Giles.”

“Hello, Wesley,” said Giles gravely. “Interesting spell you appear to have fallen victim too. I'm sure we’ll be able to reverse it without too much trouble.”

“I hope so.” Wesley tried to smile but it went nowhere near his eyes. “I really don’t want to have to attend the Watcher’s Academy twice. Pleasedon’ttellmyfather.” That was one breathless word.

Xander started and looked at Giles who was looking at Angel. The vampire put a reassuring hand on Wesley’s shoulder. “Giles wouldn’t do that. No one would do that.” His eyes were fixed on Giles and seemed to be trying to tell a whole story. Xander didn’t get the fine details but the cold feeling inside didn’t go away.

“Not if Wesley doesn’t want me to.” Giles took the bag from Xander. “Shall we get you settled in?”

“What about food?” Xander said breathlessly. “You eat food right, Wesley?”

Wesley looked up at him in confusion. “Yes.”

“Well, why don’t we get you a whole boatload of that. Right now. Pizza?” He looked at Angel. “Are they allowed pizza?”

“They can have what they like,” Angel replied. “They’re adults.”

“If we regress you’ll have to have a policy,” Wesley said wearily as he followed Giles into the living room. “A four year old Gunn on a sugar high probably wouldn’t be a pretty sight. Come to think of it an adult Gunn on a sugar high can be a little…taxing.”

Xander caught Buffy’s eye. “I'm going to go and buy pizza. Lots and lots of pizza. Possibly Chinese food as well. Maybe Mexican too. Want to come with?”

She looked at Angel questioningly. “You remember where everything is? Will you be okay while we get the food?”

“Sure.” He nodded at her and his gaze rested briefly on Xander with something approaching liking. “It’s kind of you both.”

As they closed the front door behind them, Xander said, “So…Angel and his rugrats. Have to admit I’m finding that whole situation a little…”

“Freak-making?” Buffy returned.

“I was going for ‘strange and disturbing’.” He darted her a sideways glance. “Is it tough seeing Angel again?”

“It’s always tough seeing Angel.”

“And some people think he’s easy on the eye.” Xander shook his head. “Given that you’re not actually dating at the moment and he’s doing that whole being doting and fatherly to the little people thing that some girls inexplicably find attractive in a brooding dark avengery type - even those with questionable hair care decisions - would this be the moment to point out that snuggling with a vampire is technically necrophilia?”

Buffy rolled her eyes. “Thank you so much for that image for which…eww. I don’t need to be reminded that Angel and I getting groiny doesn’t lead to hugs and puppies.”

“Just checking. We all know what rebounds can do.”

“Yes, Cordy rebounded from you to Wesley Whines-and-Snipes. You rebounded from Cordy to a vengeance demon famous for dismembering men for kicks. Drusilla, as I think we all remember from the ninety seven times Spike insisted on telling the world about it, took up with a chaos demon, and Willow became a lesbian. I think we’re all clear that rebounds are not of the Good.”

“I’m not saying the word ‘Parker’,” Xander observed conversationally. “But I am thinking it really loudly. Also Cavegirl Buffy and the beer that time forgot.”

Buffy glared at him but then continued evenly: “Still getting my head around Cordy being so…”

“Small.”

“Have to admit that Gunn is very…”

“Cute.”

“But Wesley is disturbingly…”

“Skinny.” Xander nodded. “Right there with you.”

“I'm not sure bringing them to the Hellmouth was the best idea in the world. What if something happens to them?”

“Something already has happened to them, Buff. Hence the smallage of them. But, honestly, have you ever seen a kid that thin that wasn’t in some Give Money Now charity appeal? Do you think his parents only fed him if he successfully translated a new passage on vampire killing or something? Do Watcher Kids work for food?”

“He never rebelled,” Buffy sighed. “Giles did. He had a grand old rebellion and got it out of his system - regressing spells excepted. Wesley seems to have spent his life doing what he’s told.”

“Hence his waste of spaceness when they sent him here.”

“I never gave him a chance.” She looked down at the sidewalk. “He looked at me like he thought I was going to sock him or something. I know I was a bitch to him but I wasn’t a bitch to him, was I?”

“I was right with you every step of the way, Buff,” Xander assured her. “Wesley was a jerk.”

They walked on for a moment in silence before Buffy said, “He was pretty thin when he was in Sunnydale. He just used to wear a lot of layers to cover it. Willow told me that when she went to see him in the hospital. Without his vest and his shirt and his waistcoat and his jacket with the padded shoulders - pretty skinny guy, she said. She said it was kind of sad that we made him feel like he needed to be bigger for us to listen to him. I didn’t go and see him in the hospital, of course, because I didn’t care.”

“Why should you?” Xander countered. “He was a jerk, Buffy. He really truly was.”

“And now he’s a skinny little eight year old boy who’s afraid he’s going to forget everything he knows and everything he is and who only remembers that the last time he was in Sunnydale everyone treated him like crap.” Buffy grimaced. “And yet I feel like a bitch. How strange is that?”

“Why do you think I'm buying him pizza? I didn’t go and see him in the hospital either. And I was glad it didn’t work out with him and Cordelia. I was glad the Council fired him. I assumed he’d go back to England and I hoped I’d never see him again.”

“I'm sure he felt the same way about us. But he’s stuck here with us anyway.”

“So, we expiate our irrational guilt by feeding him and reversing the spell.” Xander shrugged. “Atonement cheap at half the price.”

Buffy managed a wan smile. “Redemption through tacos. Sounds good to me.”

*** Part Three