Disclaimer: Don't own Buffy and Faith, or anyone else.

Authors Note: This takes place on Christmas almost halfway(?) through 'The Lost Girl.' Definately a lot later than what I've put up so far. It will never be mentioned though.

Merry Christmas, everyone! :)

It was Christmas Eve and unlike other children, seven year old Faith Lehane was sleeping fitfully in her bed, far too nervous about the next day ahead to relax. Her best friend Buffy was blissfully dreaming in the house next door, cuddled up to a collection of pink stuffed poodles as she had lent Mr Gordo to Faith to help her get to sleep. It had been a long day.

Earlier that day at Buffy's house…

Buffy had never been more shocked and horrified in her life to hear that Faith didn't celebrate Christmas and after much prodding, Faith had admitted that she didn't think Santa cared enough to come to her since he hadn't done so before, so therefore there was nothing to celebrate. To be honest, Faith knew very little about him. It wasn't like she turned up to school during the holiday season when the other children were making cut-out reindeer and her mother detested all those Tim Allen Christmas-themed movies and banned them and other 'sappy Christmas crap' from their home which led to a lack of decorations, no tree and definitely no Christmas lights. Faith barely understood why all those things were even necessary to the occasion.

After being told this, Buffy screwed up her face deep in thought as to why Santa had never come to Faith before and then it finally hit her.

"Faith, have you EVER sent Santa a letter?" Buffy asked her earnestly turning up the Christmas tape she was playing a bit louder so Faith could hear it better.

"No…B…. what would I send him a letter for?" Faith asked her confused, her lack of knowledge about Christmas traditions evident.

"THAT solves the mystery then!" Buffy blurted triumphantly. "If you don't send him a letter, then HOW is he supposed to know you exist and come to your house? If you don't know somebody wants presents then you can't send them any!" Buffy was getting excited. "Faith we got to write your letter right now, there isn't much time."

"Nah, B. Don't worry about it." Faith said embarrassed. "I don't want him to come, really." She listened carefully to the song that was playing on the tape which happened to be 'Santa Claus is comin' to town.'

Buffy got in her face. "Why NOT? How can you not want presents?!? I've asked for the Barbie dreamhouse, a princess castle… and a tutu and a friend for Mr Gordo and…"

"Okay, I get it Buffy." Faith said frustrated.

Buffy was undeterred and she dragged over a storybook which showed Santa climbing down the chimney and leaving presents for good children and pointed out the scene to Faith who just sat there for a long time turning the pages over in her hands staring at the illustrations and fighting back tears.

"Faith…" Buffy stopped her tirade. "What…what's wrong?" She sat down beside her feeling horrible about the fact that she must have upset her best friend somehow.

"Its nothing… don't worry about it." Faith brushed away her tears angrily feeling stupid for letting all this 'shit' get to her.

"Come on… Faith." Buffy said to her gently. "You can tell me, maybe I can help."

Faith sat for a moment in silence and then finally turned to Buffy. "It's just that… if he does come to me, he'll probably leave me coal." She said, finally admitting what had been bothering her all along, pointing to the picture of the naughty boy on the next page looking sad after only receiving the black lumps.

Buffy looked confused. "No, way Faith. That only happens to bad girls."

"But I AM a bad girl." Faith said frustrated as to why Buffy couldn't understand this. "Mommy says I'm a bad girl."

"Well, she's wrong then." Buffy said insistently.

"Thanks B, but she's always right and I'm always wrong…" Faith quoted. "And besides, it's like the song says." Faith gestured to Buffy's tape player. "He KNOWS if you've been bad or good. I know I haven't got a chance."

Buffy paused trying to figure out the best way to make things better. "I'm going to write a letter to him for you." She said pulling out her crayons. "You got to let Santa decide for himself whether you're good or bad and if he says you're good then you got to ignore what your mother says 'cause she can't see stuff as well as Santa can." Buffy felt confident about her plan and while Faith watched her nervously she scrawled out an explanation as to why Faith's letter was late and wrote that he'd missed her for the passed six years, could he please remember her this time?

"What do you want for Christmas?" Buffy asked her getting excited again at the thought of presents.

"Nothing, B. There's nothing I want." Faith muttered.

"I can't write 'nothing' Faith. How about roller-skates." Buffy suggested remembering Faith's look of envy every time Buffy went out with hers on and how Buffy couldn't even lend them to her to have a turn, because Buffy's feet were two sizes smaller.

"Yeah, okay. Whatever." Faith said, refusing to get her hopes up.

Buffy added 'and other stuff' to Faith's list knowing that getting her to admit what other things she wanted would definitely take all day and this letter had to get to the North Pole as soon as possible. "Sign here." She said, holding the crayon out to Faith.

With shaking hands Faith signed it, imagining her entire room getting filled up with coal so bad that she wouldn't be able to move… or even breathe. To her, this was like signing her death certificate. "How does it get to Santa?" Faith asked Buffy.

"Oh, my mom does all that. She stamps it and sends it off. MOM!" Buffy yelled and her mother instantly appeared in the doorway. "Can you send off Faith's Christmas list?"

"Oh?" Joyce said surprised. "Leaving it a bit late aren't you, Faith?"

"Faiths not really up on Christmas traditions, mom." Buffy explained and Joyce disappeared, gently opening the letter in private, her eyes widening at her daughters handwriting explaining Faith hadn't celebrated Christmas before and thanking her lucky stars that she had picked up some roller-skates on sale without Buffy knowing for Faith's birthday which was also coming up. She would definitely be giving them to Faith on Christmas day now, if things were as bad as all that.

Faith and Buffy spent the rest of the day making a checklist of 'things necessary to make Santa come' which included: Cookies and milk, decorations, and a tree… which was actually more like a 'Christmas shrubbery' that the girls had pulled from the backyard. Buffy stole some tinsel from her own tree and they made some decorations out of construction paper and put it at the foot of Faith's bed. Faith beamed with pride. It may have not looked like much to some, but to Faith it was her very first tree and it was beautiful.

Buffy went to Faith's sock drawer and had no trouble finding an odd sock that could be used as a stocking. It would have been far harder, if not impossible to find one that had an existing pair. "Lucky you got big feet." Buffy told her testing how much stuff could fit in and Faith punched her good naturedly.

Soon it was time for Buffy to have dinner. "Merry Christmas, Faith." Buffy said reaching up to hug her and then turned to go inside.

Faith hesitated. "Hey, Buffy?"

Buffy stopped and turned around.

"Thanks." Faith said to her mustering up a smile even though she was as nervous as anything about what lay ahead.

"No problem, Faith." Buffy hoped that their plan would work and Faith would have a happy Christmas for the first time.

Now it was midnight, and Joyce had laid out her gifts to Buffy and Dawn which piled high almost to the ceiling and she carried Faith's gift next door intending putting it under the Lehane's Christmas tree. She wasn't too sure if Buffy was exaggerating when she had written that Santa had never came to Faith before. Joyce couldn't understand what sort of parent would begrudge their children of Christmas and she figured it could have been Buffy's way of exaggerating to try and help Faith get more gifts.

A quick survey of the premises proved that theory wrong. Joyce was only delivering the gift personally, because Catherine Lehane's car had just pulled into the driveway just then and she had left the door open and Joyce figured she wouldn't mind her popping in.

Joyce was met with the sight of Catherine sprawled on the couch, open door forgotten, and it looked like she'd had a heavy night and wasn't about to move for quite some time, let alone make christmas happen.

There was no tree, and with a grim look, Joyce realized that her daughter hadn't been exaggerating Faith's Christmas situation.

She put her gift to Faith on the table and tried to rouse Catherine.

"Catherine… are you aware it's Christmas eve?" Joyce said laying a hand on her shoulder.

"Don't…do… Christmas…here." Catherine muttered distractedly trying to flick her hand away.

"I see." Joyce sighed. Getting an idea, she ran back to her own home and took a few of Buffy and Dawn's gifts from their mountain that she knew neither of them would miss and put them on the table beside Faith's rollerskates. She didn't want to go upstairs and put them on Faith's bed for fear of waking the child up and ruining the surprise. Seeing some cookies and milk that were obviously intended for the fat man in the suit she drank half the milk and nibbled on the cookies to keep up the charade. Joyce left the house smiling to herself with a good feeling, knowing that she'd done her best to help a little girl believe in the spirit of Christmas.

When Faith woke up the next morning she was almost too afraid to open her eyes. She was encouraged by the fact that she wasn't drowning in coal, and opened them a crack, and then wider till she was staring at her 'stocking' hung up by her bed. It looked empty, and after a quick scan Faith noticed nothing under her tree. She reached for her 'stocking' anyway and felt down it expecting to find a piece of coal at the bottom. She found nothing. She sighed. It was almost like Santa didn't like her enough to even bother to give her coal. She must be SO bad that she didn't even deserve to be told how naughty she was. For minutes Faith just sat and cried. She couldn't help it. Although she'd tried not to get her hopes up, she had. She'd started to believe that Christmas would come for her this year and had even taken on some of Buffy's enthusiasm. She could hear Buffy and Dawn screaming in delight next door and knew that Santa definitely considered both of them to be on his 'nice' list. She shrugged it off and told herself to stop feeling sorry for herself. Nothing was ever going to change.

She went down the stairs with her shoulders slumped and saw her mother asleep and dead to the world on the couch, which she was expecting. Completely unexpected though, was the pile of presents on the table near her. Faith stopped still and felt her heart beat faster. Santa did leave her something. Okay, so they might still be filled with coal. But it meant something to Faith that Santa didn't forget her. She leapt towards them and tore the first one open and to her utter shock she found a pair of roller-skates. She tore the rest open quickly and found stuffed animals and some books. Faith smiled and her whole body filly up with a warm feeling she didn't recognize. It was like Buffy said, Santa knew everything. If he gave her presents then her mommy must be wrong and Faith mustn't be as bad as Catherine said she is. Faith looked to the ceiling and whispered a thank-you to Santa. She would hide these presents from her mother and let this be a secret between her and Santa. Telling mommy would only cause trouble. Santa believed in her, and Buffy believed in her. And that was what really mattered.

She grabbed her gifts carrying them all with difficulty and ran to the Summer's house yelling for joy that Santa had came. Buffy greeted her enthusiastically and two jumped up and down, Faith completely losing her hold on her presents and they flew in all directions. Joyce smiled at her and bent down to help her pick them up and Faith smiled shyly back completely oblivious to anything but the fact that this was definitely her best Christmas ever.