Bite Your Tongue

Title: Bite Your Tongue
Author: Pattyanne
Disclaimer: Not mine.
Feedback: Love some, thanks.

For: Wajoma...who provided delicious in-
spiration!
&
Jo....who started the whole thing!

************************************************

"DADDY!"

Spike was jerked rudely out of a very nice dream
he'd been having, involving Buffy and melted chocolate.

He opened his eyes and beheld his five year old
daughter standing next to the sofa. Her cheeks were
streaked with tears and there was a smear of....

"Katherine!" he choked, horrified. "What happened,
baby?"

Leaping up off the sofa, he scooped her up and carried
his sobbing child into the kitchen. He sat her on the
counter and tore off a sheet of paper toweling. After
wetting it, he dabbed gently at the blood on her chin.

"Alex puthed me!" she wailed piteously.

Feeling the steam beginning to rise in him, Spike beat
back his anger and examined Katie's face for an injury.
He'd take care of her first...then go after Alex.

There were no scratches or cuts anywhere on her
baby soft skin, but he could see traces of blood in
her mouth.

"Open your mouth, Katie," he instructed her.

As he'd suspected, she'd bitten her tongue.

"Whereth Mommy?" Katie asked, wiping her eyes
on the back of her hand.

"Mommy's at the store, sweetie," he said, digging
around in the freezer, hoping he would find what he
needed. "Here, baby." He pulled a box of Popsicles
out and opened it. "This'll make it feel better."

Katie sniffled and looked up at him, her bright blue
eyes swimming in tears. "What kind?" she asked in a
wobbly voice.

Spike examined the box. "Cherry, orange, or lemon-lime"
he reported.

"Cherry," Katie requested.

After he'd had her rinse her mouth out with water, he
held her on his lap and peeled the paper off the Popsicle
for her. "Tell Daddy what happened, baby."

Katie leaned back in her father's arms, her favorite
place to be cuddled. "Alex ith mean, Daddy," she said,
sucking on the frozen treat. "He puthed me down and
I bited my tongue."

It took all of his determination to keep Spike from
leaving the house and hunting down the little bully who
had hurt his baby. Alex Mitchell, the hellion next door,
was a year older than Katie and nearly twice her
size.

He had never liked that boy. The second the Mitchells
had moved into the neighborhood, Spike had known the little
thug was gonna be a problem.

And now...here it was! After several years of peace
and domestic bliss....he was gonna have to kill someone!

"Listen, baby," he said softly, kissing the top of Katie's
head, "I'm sure Alex didn't mean to push you down on
purpose, did he?" **He'd better NOT have**

"Yeth, Daddy," his little one lisped. "He needsth a time
out!"

**He needs a swift kick in the...**

"Hey! Where is everybody?" Buffy called out from the
foyer.

"Mommyth home," Katie mumbled around her dripping
Popsicle.

"In the kitchen, babe!" he yelled, setting Katie on her
feet.

Buffy walked in with a bag of groceries in her arms. She
took one look at her husband's face and asked, "What's
wrong?"

"Alexth puthed me and made me be bloody," Katie
piped up, her lips sticky from the melting Popsicle.

"What?" Buffy asked, kneeling next to her daughter. "Alex
pushed you?"

Katie nodded, tears welling up again in her eyes. "I bited
my tongue," she announced, opening her mouth for her
mother. "Theee?"

Buffy frowned and examined Katie's injury. The bleeding
had already stopped, but she could see a very slight
swollen spot on the side of the little girl's tongue.

She glanced at her husband, then smiled at Katie. "Want
to go and watch Sesame Street for a while, punkin?" she
asked.

Katie nodded happily, forgetting all about her sore tongue.

After Buffy ushered her into the front room and turned
the TV on for her, she returned to the kitchen and con-
fronted her angry spouse. "Calm down."

Spike was ready to put his fist through the wall. Al-
though he'd managed not to go off in front of Katie, he
was rapidly losing what little control he had over his
temper.

"Calm down?" he repeated softly. "That little monster
next door...shoves our little girl and causes her to bite
her tongue...she..." He slammed his hand down on the
counter. "Damn it....she could have bitten part of it off!"
he said angrily, then composed his features. "I'm gonna
kill him."

Buffy caught hold of his arm as he prepared to head
out the door on his mission of vengeance. "You can't
kill Alex," she informed him. "He's six years old."

"He's never gonna see seven," Spike replied matter-
of-factly.

She tightened her grip. "Plus...it's the middle of the
afternoon. A nice, bright, sunny afternoon."

"I don't give a shit," he hissed, leaning closer. "It'll
be worth the risk."

Buffy was saved from having to respond by Katie calling
for her father. "Daddy! Come do counting wif me."

"There," Buffy said, releasing his arm. "Katie wants
you."

It was the only thing that kept him in the house. Spike
never refused his princess anything. If she wanted Daddy
to come and do counting with her, that's what Daddy
would be doing, for as long as she wanted.

"I'm coming, baby," he called out.

"Can I have another popthicle?" she asked.

"Yes, Katie," Buffy answered. "Daddy will bring you another
Popsicle." She retrieved the box from the freezer and handed
it to him. "Listen," she said quietly. "You stay here and
take care of the baby. I'll go next door and talk to Linda."

Only slightly mollified, Spike nodded. "You make sure that
little troll apologizes to Katie," he demanded.

Buffy patted his arm. "Okay, Daddy Bear," she nodded. "Go
give Katie her popsicle."


*************************************************


She was home again in less than five minutes. Walking
into the front room, she picked up the TV remote and
switched the set off.

"Mommy!" Katie protested from her seat in Spike's
lap. "I wath doing A, B, thees."

Buffy folded her arms across her chest and stared at
her daughter. "I was just next door talking with Alex's
mommy," she said, holding up one hand when Spike
opened his mouth to speak. "It turns out that there was
a little more to the story than Katie was telling us."

Spike frowned. "What's that supposed to mean?"

Katie plunged her thumb into her mouth and wriggled
deeper into her father's lap.

"Do you want to tell Daddy what happened?" Buffy
asked. "Or do you want Mommy to do it?"

"Alexth puthed me," the little girl said around a mouth-
ful of thumb. "He made me bited my tongue."

Buffy narrowed her eyes slightly. "And why did Alex
push you?"

"Cauth he'th mean."

"No...try again."

Spike set his daughter on her feet in front of him, but kept
her close, suspecting that the story wasn't gonna put
her in a favorable light.

"Tell Daddy what you were doing when Alex pushed you,"
Buffy said.

Katie squirmed in her father's hands. "I need to go potty,"
she announced, tugging at the straps of her pink corduroy
overalls.

"You just went potty," Spike said.

She paused to think. "I need to go poopie," she
offered instead.

Her parents exchanged a glance. "I'm sure you can hold
it for a minute," Buffy said sternly. "Now, tell Daddy...take
your thumb out of your mouth, Katherine...tell Daddy what
game you were playing with Alex."

Katie stared at her shoes. "Candyland," she confessed.

Spike closed his eyes for a moment. He already
knew what was coming.

For all her considerable charm and winning ways, his
little girl was a domineering tyrant when the Candyland
board hit the rug. She had very definite ideas about
how the game was to be played, sometimes going so
far as to change the rules in mid-game to suit herself.

Worse yet, she was a notoriously poor sport when it
came to losing. It wasn't uncommon for her to actually
fling the board into the air and scream, "No fair!" if
another player reached the Candy Castle first.

Buffy was trying diligently to break Katie of this habit,
placing the blame for this particular problem squarely
at Spike's doorstep. The child had inherited her father's
"My way or the highway" attitude, made worse by the
fact that, when HE played with her, he always made
sure to let her win.

"Katherine Rose?" Buffy prompted, a warning implicit
in her tone of voice. "Were you playing Candyland with
Alex?"

"Yeth."

"What color was your gingerbread man?"

"Blue."

"What color did you want?"

"Red."

"Who already had the red one?"

"Alexth."

"And you told Alex that YOU wanted the red one?"

"Yeth."

"What did Alex say?"

"No.\ "D "Did you try and take it away from him?"

"Yeth."

"Did he let you?"

"No."

"Did Alex hold it behind his back?"

"Yeth."

"Did you get mad?"

"Yeth."

"Did you pull his hair and refuse to let go?"

"Uh-huh."

"And did you call him a 'bloody stupid little git' ?"

Spike winced, slapping one hand to his forehead.

"Yeth."

During Buffy's interrogation, Katie sighed,
wiggled, stared at her feet, sucked her thumb,
removed it from her mouth, examined it, returned
it to her mouth, draped herself backwards over her
father's knee, broke her Popsicle stick in half and
tried to put it back together....all this without ever
once looking her mother in the eye.

"Do you have something that belongs to
Alex?" Buffy asked.

The little girl shrugged and put her hand in her
pocket.

"Show Daddy what's in your pocket."

Katie brought her hand out and opened her small
fist, revealing a red plastic gingerbread man.

************************************************

An hour later...

Buffy closed Katie's bedroom door halfway, then
went downstairs in search of her husband.

After literally dragging her child next door, she
made Katie return the purloined game piece and
apologize, then took her home and sent her up-
stairs to her room.

This was the absolute last thing Katie wanted to
do. She loved her bedroom and everything in
it....unless she was told to go there.

Overly tired, the little girl protested the punish-
ment shrilly, pitching a tantrum of ridiculous
proportions.

No amount of screaming, crying, or promising to be
good swayed Bufs ins intent. In the bedroom she was,
and in the bedroom she would stay.

Spike, on the other hand, was completely undone
by his daughter's unhappiness, forcing Buffy
to stand guard at Katie's door to keep him from
going in and rescuing her.

Unable to bear it, he'd had to go downstairs when
his baby cried, "Daddy! Come get me! I wanna
get up, Daddy!"

The heartbroken sobbing finally eased up as the
child cried herself to sleep. Buffy had opened the
door as quietly as she could, and took a peek in-
side.

Katie was curled up in the middle of her pink and
white canopy bed, arms wrapped snugly around her
stuffed bunny rabbit.

An occasional hiccuping sob was the only sound
in the room.


TBC....

(I know, I know! I just can't keep things simple,
can I? "Write a tongue fic." How simple is that?
A short little PWP? Easy. No sweat. Could do
it with one hand tied behind my back. So, why the
hell is it turning into this?

Seems like I no longer have control of my muse. It's
pretty much doing what it damn well pleases.

Don't worry. I'll make it up to you, and
I haven't forgotten the original purpose of the story.
Next chapter, I'll stop talking about Katie's tongue
and start talking about her daddy's.

THEN we'll have some fun, won't we?