Memories Flow

Aveline crawled into Buffy's arms across the bed laying a sloppy kiss on her cheek. Buffy enveloped her daughter breathing in the baby smell of lotion and sweet dreams. Angel pulled his eldest close until they were heart to heart. Connor laid back against his father until Lucien spoke.

"Santa Came!!" he bounced.

"Well lets go see what he brought," Angel suggested.

            He went to slip on a shirt while his wife changed the baby. Then they joined their sons downstairs.

            Angel stood before entering the room to savor the scene before him. Connor and Lucien crowded as close to the tree as they could, waiting patiently. Buffy found a place next to Connor when Terin appeared to lay against his wife's side. He yawned then licked the baby's face. Aveline giggled while locking her tiny fists in his thick fur, Shannon stared at him, the queen on the couch mirroring her mate's yawn.

"Come on Papa!" Lucien wiggled, his patience gone.

            It was tradition that he played Santa. Gift by gift the mounting pile disappeared from under the spruce. By 8'o clock the Gailen family sat around and empty tree amid a sea of paper. Buffy leaned against Angel watching watching Aveline cover Terin with a piece of green wrapping paper then erupt in laughter when he shook it off. The boys concurred over Connor's new set of space legoes. It was the complete set he had asked for all year.

"It's already after eight, he'll be here soon," Buffy whispered in Angel's ear.

            Angel nodded. Every Christ,as for the past five years Giles had shared day.

*           *           *

            A tough wrinkled hand paused to knock on the door of 1126 Cecily drive. Through the thick door he heard the laughter. Their laughter, now they were a family. His Buff's family. For five years their lives had all held peace. Even now the though of the two lovers married and with the miracle of a child blew him away. Aveline gave the world of good hope, no other slayer had conceived and bore a child never the less one with a vampire.

            His girls were grown, one a mother while the youngest roamed the world as a skilled watcher and wicca. Christmas came once a year…he knocked on the door.

            It opened revealing dark eyes and a heavy brow. A mirror of his handsom father Connor smiled.

"Giles!"

            The watcher took lanky limbs and all into his arms. Connor was warm and strong. He looked over the boys head sensing another presence.

            Angel gazed on at the man he had once almost tortured to death holding his son. Aveline cuddled closer to her father's chest at the sight of the second man.  Her father extended his hand.

"Merry Christmas Giles."

            Angel's words broke the spell where both men smiled.

"Indeed it is Angel," Giles ruffled Lucien's curls, stepping inside.

            Angel watched him gaze around then turn to lock eyes with the husband.

"She's in the kitchen."

            Giles neared Angel to pear in the baby's face. She was the spitting image of Buffy. Delicate features on a face with evergreen eyes framed with blond curls. Even at such a new age she radiated power of life and supernatural. Giles breathed it in, smelling Buffy. The slayer who had become his daughter in every way but birth.

"Don't you remember me little one?"

            Hazel eyes turned away from her father's shirt to stare into his. A strange intelligence bore there in the child's eyes. Man and child gazed on one another for moments. Finally Aveline broke it with a smile. She allowed Giles to lift her from Angel's arms.

"Such a bueaty, she is Buffy all over," Giles told her father.

"Yes she is," Angel tucked Lucien under one arm. "Let's go find your mother."

            They found Buffy in flannel pj pants and a sweatshirt, looking all the world of seventeen, beating a bowl of eggs. She caught sight of Giles breaking into a beaming smile. Without a word she ran into the arms of her watcher hugging both man and child. Aveline babbled twirling her mother's hair. When the adults pulled away she rested comfortably in Giles arms.

"Merry Christmas darling," he kissed her cheek.

"It really is Giles, now that you're here."

"When is Dawn due in?" he realized the little one wasn't there.

"She and Willow are meeting up with Xander and the children tonight. We are picking them up at 8," Angel answered.

"Good," Giles shifted the child he carried to his other shoulder.

            Giles watched the Gailen family over Christmas breakfast. Angel's affection for his children was apparent and he was amazingly aware of everything going on. When Aveline tipped her cup over Angel caught it before it splattered all over the floor. They were a comfortable, loving family at ease with the life Angel and Buffy had created. There was no mention of anything vampiric, that would come later when the children were tucked in bed away from the reality of the world their parents fought for.

*           *           *

            Giles remembered that Christmas fondly, the one where Aveline was but a year old. He was on a plane bound for California to see his family for Aveline's third birthday. It had been over a year since he had seen the children. Buffy and Angel had traveled to England this past summer for a month to conference with the Watcher's Council. His thoughts roamed to their little girl as his plane landed.

Time was changing and if only he could stop what was to happen. He looked to his companion in the seat to his right.

            Spike looked over the magazine he had been reading for the past two hours.

"Are we bloody there yet?"