So all we have to do...
"But I don't want to go to sleep." Buffy protested between yawns. "I want to wait for Anita to bring Willow back."
Richard stoked the dark hair gently, "I'm sure she'll do everything she can. But for know you need to get some sleep. Look Faith is already going to sleep."
"That's 'cause Faith doesn't care about Willow." Buffy stamped one foot and pouted.
"Hey I don't have anything against Red, she's cool, bit on the strange side but hey who isn't around you." Faith mumbled before wiggling into a more comfortable position on the couch. "Quit worrying B, the little witch will take care of herself she's good at that."
Richard frowned slightly and pulled Buffy onto his lap as he sat down on the other end of the couch. The child looked miserable for a moment, "I miss them so much." she whispered so softly he barely heard it. He hugged her close and crooned a toneless lullaby wondering who them was and if this little girl would ever see them again.
Anita paced back and forth, she needed to act fast and had no clue yet what to do. The girls would be at risk the moment anyone found out about them, she couldn't watch them every second of the day and night, nor could Richard. Dolph and Zerbrowski stood talking outside, neither was happy at the prospect that the monsters would be hunting two little girls. It was one thing to know it happened it was another to have seen the faces of the two little girls in question. Tammy continued to scour the house, muttering to herself from time to time. Anita disliked the idea of Tammy going though her house, but then she disliked the idea of anyone invading her home.
Speaking of invaders, she wondered how Richard was doing with the girls. Buffy had probably charmed him into sitting up all night watching television. She opened a drawer of the nightstand and pulled out a simple white business card. The ringing on the other end stopped abruptly with the mechanical voice of an answering service, instructing her to leave a message at the tone. 'This is Anita. I need to talk to you now."
She put the card back in it's spot and walked out to talk to Dolph and Zerbrowski, calling Tammy over to them. "We have to be quiet about the girls. The fewer people that know about them the better right now."
Anita's beeper chimed then, a local number she didn't know. So he was in town. That made it easier she guessed.
Tammy nodded in agreement. "I need to do some research, this is not like anything I've ever seen before."
Dolph and Zerbrowski remained a bit longer, flipping a coin to see who would remain at Anita's house. If another child showed up or something else they wanted to keep an eye on the place. Anita handed over her spare house keys to Dolph with a sigh and headed for Richard's house. At least one blessing of the night was that Dolph had not heard Buffy's innocent statement that Richard was a were. Dolph's hatred of preternatural creatures was legendary. But that worked in her favor at the moment. He would give his life to keep the girls away from the monsters.
Coffee, she needed to pick some up if she was going to be at Richard's all night. The man was handsome beyond belief, a gentleman, he loved musicals too, but his dislike of coffee almost outweighed it all. She pulled into an all night market might as well grab something for the girl's breakfast. What did one feed kids? The beeper sounded again, same number. She headed for the pay phone and called the number, she was never going to get any sleep tonight.
"Morning Anita." the voice calmly stated
"I would ask what you are doing in town, but after the night I've had I am surprised you didn't show up in my living room like everyone else."
"Everyone else?" Edward actually sounded vaguely amused. "Should I join your little party?"
"I've had a very interesting night, at least three children have been dropped by magic in my house, half the RPIT unit has been in my house, one of which is currently babysitting the house. And just to top it all off someone has cast a very high powered magic spell on me." Anita leaned against the wall finally giving voice to the fear that had been gnawing at her since Buffy had screamed mommy.
"Where are you?" The voice on the other end of the phone demanded all amusement gone.
"Standing outside the Schnuck's near my house" She slid down to sit on the still sun warm concrete and let the phone fall from her hand.
"The spell Tara found is extraordinarily close to the draconian katra spell. The slight difference is that instead of asking that the souls be switched, it asked for an intervention in the lives of the pair." Giles cleaned his glasses as he paced back and forth.
"So they are in some sort of cosmic nut house talking it over?" Xander asked.
"Oh I know that spell!" Anya popped up brightly, "It forces two people with a problem to either solve it. Or start over as children, so they get to grow up again and not have the problem. Very effective!"
Willow glared at the brightly smiling face, "That still doesn't explain why I got sent there and why I am not even four foot tall."
Tara shrugged, "But you are close to them and the spell might have thought you needed help, but because you were by yourself it reversed at least mostly. So if you were with someone else and you two solved your problem then you would be back to normal."
Giles cleared his throat, "Another thing to consider is that it was not the draconian katra spell, Buffy and Faith will still be switched and that could be considered the problem of the spell there for not allowing a resolution."
Xander and Willow looked at one another, "So we have to do the right spell, get there somehow, get them switched back and to work out their problems and then they can come back all grown up and slayer fit?" Willow asked looking a bit pale.
"In a word yes." Giles felt his headache returning.