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January 26. earlier that day.

Two children played happily outside, each trying to outdo the other in their games, when they heard yelling.

"William Giles Xander Summers! In here! Pronto!" The voice yelled.

"What you do now?" the little girl teased her friend.

"Shut up Mithril!" the boy grumped back.

"Ooo!! your not allowed to say that!! I'm tellin." she teased.

William narrowed his eyes and scowled at the girl. She merely smiled and batted her eyes and than skipped away. William grumbled under his breath about *stupid girls* and shuffled inside. His stomach was a mess of nerves. Not so much about Mithril's threat. He knew she wouldn't tell on him. There is an unspoken code between best friends that included no tattling.

It was the tone in his mother's voice that had let him know that he'd just been caught in doing something. It was the something that he was unsure about. The problem was that there had been a few recent *some things*. He wondered which of the *some thing'* was the source of her yelling.
It wasn't like William was..intentionally bad. He just got into quite a few..*accidents*, especially when using magic. Yeah, most of the time when his head told him not to do something, he usually did it anyway. Sometimes, he did things before the thoughts even reached his head! He couldn't help it! His body just reacted before his head could stop him!
Images of the most recent *accidents*, flashed though his brain, one in paticular.

Had she found Ms. Herner's cat? The one he and Mithril *accidentally* petrified? That's what uncle Xander said was the word that meant when something that walked around suddenly turned solid like a rock. They didn't tell him exactly why they had wanted to know how something that was alive turned into a rock. They had just said they saw something on t.v. Uncle Xander explained to them what petrified was. That gave them a new word for the day, but didn't really help them with the cat.

'But..It wasn't their fault.' William reasoned to himself. Mommy had wanted the cat to stay out of her flowers. They were just trying to get the cat to move away without biting either of them! So they tried a little spell to scare it! They didn't' mean to turn it solid! They were trying to help!
After they had done it. They couldn't undo it. So they panicked and had hidden the now solid cat statue in the backyard under some bushes.

'Oh. No.' He thought. It would be a double whammy. No triple. He used magic's when he wasn't suppose to. He tried to cover it up, and he had lied to her when she'd asked him days later if he had seen the cat. If there was one thing mommy hated. It's when he lied.

Slowly he walked into the house and saw her standing there with her arms folded in front of her while she glared down at him. She had the made face on. The really Really mad, mad face on! William knew he was in for it.

Willim stood there for what seemed like years, just watching her glare at him, feeling the anger radiating off her.

Buffy stared at her son. He looked so nervous and anxious and she hated that she was the cause behind those looks, but she felt in her heart that she had to be firm with him. He'd been way reckless lately and Giles was constantly warning her that she was too soft with him. It part, perhaps Giles was right. She just loved him so much that she found it hard to stay angry at him.
But he was only four and if she lost control of him now who knows what trouble he'd be capable of later. He was after all his father's son, and he had his father's habit of not quite thinking things through. A bad habit in Buffy's mind and one she intended to break before it went on any longer.

She watch him fidgeting for a moment longer. "Well William. Do you have something you'd like to tell me?"

William looked around, up in the air, than at his feet. His feet definitely appeared very interesting at the moment and he just stood and stared his dark blue eyes at them. Anything would be better than raising his eyes and seeing her harsh glare.

Finally after several long minutes that felt like years, he answered her, "Umm, nothing I can really...think of...right now.. mommy." he added giving her a most innocent look while still avoiding her eyes.

Buffy gave her son the *Oh really look*. "Nothing? Nothing at all? You sure about that? This is your last chance William.", she warned.

William remained silent and shrugged his shoulders, "I..I can't think of anything."

Buffy frowned and motioned with her hand, indicating for William to follow her. She silently lead him to the back of the house, into the little room off the living room that she used as an office. William wasn't supposed to be playing around in her. It was where Buffy did computer work for the council, and also where she worked on some medical home billing that supplemented the magic shop income.

The room was small filled with just a desk with her computer and her standing lamp. It had bookshelves filled with all sorts of reference book, some on magic. There was a large file cabinet filled with papers and artifacts that she would examine for the council before putting them in the council stores. Nothing in the room had ever been locked up though. Buffy and her son had an understanding that this room was her for work and therefore off limits when she wasn't home. Buffy never imagined that her son would break their agreement..until now.

Buffy stopped in front of her bookcase and motioned to wall beside it. Pinned there was a few of his drawing that he had made for her.
She lifted one up and there hidden under it, as clear as day was a small rounded sized hole penetrating the wall.

'Oh', William thought, 'That.' He remembered that now. He wasn't supposed to come in her, but once when John Russel was over playing he had through William's ball into the room and dared William to go get it. William went in and John Russel followed. While his aunt had been on the phone, obvious to the youngsters, they became fascinated with the magic books.

John Russel, being a couple of years older than William, was a little better at reading. He recited a levitation spell while William tried to perform it with the tennis ball.
Before the boys knew it the ball spun out of control and rammed right into the wall creating the hole. William had panicked and moved one of the pictures his mother had up over the hole. He figured she had so many pinned up, she wouldn't notice if one moved a bit.
Boy was he ever wrong!

Frantically, William tried to come up with something to tell his mother. "Ummm. It was an accident." Yeah that was it!

"Ugh." Buffy moaned in disgust. "Is that the best you can do William? You just accidentally fell into the room. Rummaged though my books, which you know your not suppose to touch, and managed to put a hole though my wall? That was all an accident?"

"But...But.. John Russel.. He said.."

"No, don't even try William. Jezz, if John Russel asked you to jump off the Empire state.. No wait don't answer that. William you know the rules and you chose to break them."

"So, your mad at me?" He asked in a small timid voice.

"William." Buffy said, "I'm more than mad. I'm disappointed. Apparently I can't trust you."

"Oh." He said, tears coming into his eyes. Somehow this seems worse than if she was just mad.

"William, I just don't know..." Buffy began before she was cut off by the buzz of her cell phone.
Buffy glanced at the called I. D. and motioned for William to stay put and stay quiet. She answered the phone and heard Dawn's sightly panicked voice at the other end.

"Buffy!???"

"Dawn! What is it What's wrong!" Buffy answered, fear rising in her voice.

"Nothing. at least. I think it's nothing. I'm not sure if it's nothing or something. I feel.. There seems like.. This thing.. Following me. Only I turn back and it..Just,,Gone..Than I go walking along again..All happy and La La La, and than I feel it again. I don't know if it's nothing or something, but I'm really freaked out and I called to the Council and they said most of the girl are on assignment. Things have been really jumpy today..Demony wise. So that freaked me out some more.."

"Dawn..DAWN!! Don't worry, just stay put. I'll call Willow and Lilia and we'll get over to the dorms pronto. Just let me call around to get someone to watch the kids..Kay?!"

"Thanks Buffy, "Dawn said relieved, "Your the best sister ever."

Buffy hung up with Dawn and turned her attention back to her son.

"Is Aunt Dawn okay?" William asked shyly.

"She'll be fine, "Buffy said a little roughly. "You should be worrying about yourself and the long punishment your going to be receiving."

"But..But mommy," William said with a pout.

"No. Don't give me the pout. I invented that pout. Just go..to your room..I can't..look at you..right now."

William stood their stunned with tears in his eyes..waiting. He waited for her to take that back. For her to tell him that she loved him more that anything, like she always did. But she stood there, unmoved. William had never seen her this upset with him.

Slowly he walked out of the office and than ran up the stairs to his room, crying all the while.

Only when he had left did Buffy let her breath out. Her heart broke at the site of his stricken little face. She wanted nothing more than to run upstairs and comfort him. But she held herself firm. That whole buisness in the coucil building made her decide that had to learn to follow some basic rules. His safety. No his life, could depend on it. She felt she was at a precipice with him and if she gave in now..she'd lose him somehow. No she had to be firm.

No matter how much it hurt them both.





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