CHAPTER ELEVEN – A VERY BUFFY CHRISTMAS

"How long have they been in there?"

"I don't know. Pretty long."

"What do you think they're doing?"

"Oh, I think I know what they're –"

"Xander!" Willow nudged her friend. "They're probably just… catching up."

After carefully dragging Spike to Angel's – the "people" had gotten up again and had thrown stakes at Spike –, Buffy had pushed him into her room and she had shut the door. The Scooby Gang, including Angel, was sitting downstairs, making suspicions.

"I can't believe you didn't tell us!" Dawn said, hurt. "How long have you known about him?"

"Not… that long." She sighed. "Look, he asked me not to tell you, OK? He thought it would complicate things. And I think he was right, considering how long he and Buffy have been in there…"

"Maybe we should go check if everything's OK," Willow suggested.

"I'm sure everything's fine," said Angel, who hadn't been very talkative the whole time. "I don't hear any punches or yelling… anymore."

After the sounds of breaking things, the slayer and the vampire had fallen silent. Zoey couldn't even hear them speak. It was absolutely quiet.

"I don't care. I'm going up there." Dawn stood up and after about a second, everyone followed her. She knocked on the door.

After a pause, Buffy answered: "What is it?"

"Uh, we were just wondering if everything was OK," she said.

"Yeah, everything's fine."

Dawn hesitated. "Well, good. That's great. We'll just… sit down and… drink… tea… or something."

She was about to go back downstairs, when suddenly the door opened, but only slightly. The Gang could only see Buffy.

"Uh," she said, "Dawn, would you like to talk to him?"

For a moment, the sisters just looked at each other, then Dawn slowly started walking into the room.

xxxxx

"It was weird," Buffy said, "You know, seeing him. After all this time. When Zoey told me he was alive, I imagined us meeting again. But I didn't imagine it like this. I thought we would have so much to talk about. But… we hardly talked at all." She shrugged.

"Well, you should give it some time, Buffy," Willow said encouragingly, "I mean… this is normal. Right? This was a shock for you."

"Yeah, I guess," she said, staring to the ground. "I just… I feel like we lost something."

"Oh no!" Zoey said, "You and Spike didn't lose anything! You can't have lost something!"

Willow and Buffy stared at her.

"I – I mean… That would be sad. So," she said, changing the subject, "How are we celebrating Christmas, huh? Because when the show was on, there was always a break during the holidays, so…"

"Christmas. Right. Um." Buffy brushed a strand of hair out of her face. "I, uh… I don't know. I guess we'll get a tree or something." And then she left.

Willow looked after her worriedly, then turned her attention to Zoey. "This is bad! Buffy's getting all worked up over this."

"Are you surprised?"

"Well, no. I just…" She shrugged, making an adorable Willow-face. "I guess I thought it would be… different. Easier."

"Morning, ladies."

Willow and Zoey turned around quickly when they saw Spike. Zoey looked at the clock. Damn, it was almost six in the morning. Besides her brain, her sense of time had gotten pretty messed up in the Buffyverse. She was always staying up at night, and when she was sleeping, then it wasn't for long and she woke up having panic attacks.

"Hey Spike," said Willow, trying to sound all calm and natural. "So, how did your… chat with Buffy go? Or whatever you were doing."

"Not great." He opened the fridge. "Oh, blood. I'm guessing that's Angel's." He looked at the cup for a moment, then he shrugged, grabbed it and took a sip.

"A little more specific, maybe?" said Zoey.

He sighed. "Didn't she tell you? We hardly talked. It was bad." He looked at the ceiling. "Not really the heart-to-heart chit-chat I was hoping for."

"Well, give her some time," suggested Willow. "She'll come around."

"Maybe. As far as I know, she's pissed at me for not telling her about me not being dead earlier. Can't blame her for that."

"Really can't," Zoey said. Spike looked at her.

"What? I just… Ugh, never mind. You know what? If you guys are refusing to decorate the house and get a Christmas tree, I'll do it."

Spike looked up. "It's Christmas?"

Willow and Zoey glared at him.

"How was I supposed to know?" he defended himself. "Didn't have a calendar in that alley!"

xxxxx

"Wow," Buffy said.

"I know, right?" said Zoey, smiling proudly.

"Wow."

"You've said that befo–"

"I cannot believe you did this!" Buffy looked at the fairy lights, the tree, the little Santa Claus figures, the pseudo-presents (they were basically just wrapping paper filled with Styrofoam), and all the stuff Zoey had bought.

"I took a little money from your purse. I'm sorry. I –"

"This is beautiful!" Buffy smiled. "Thanks, Zoey."

"No problem. First I thought, well, Angel probably isn't really the Christmassy kinda guy, but then I figured, what the hell."

"Look at those adorable decorations!" Willow said.

"The figures are kinda cheesy," said Faith. "The little wings right there aren't really my style. Good job though."

"I cannot believe it's gonna be Christmas Eve tonight," said Dawn, typing stuff on her phone. "Time goes by so quickly. I didn't even manage to get you guys presents yet!"

A choir saying "Ugh, me neither!" resounded.

"Me neither," said Zoey, "I'm sorry. I just kind of… forgot over the whole decoration buying thing."

"Oh, that's OK," said Willow, "You've already done so much."

"Yeah," Zoey said, "Hey, Willow, can I talk to you for a second?" Not even waiting for an answer, she grabbed her arm and pulled her into a room.

Willow looked at her. "What's going on?"

"Well," Zoey said, "I'm kind of worried about something. Remember when you said something weird to me, like that I was going through some sort of… change?"

"Yeah," Willow nodded.

"Um… The thing is, for some time now, I have been having… dreams."

"Dreams," Willow repeated, "Don't you normally have dreams in your world?"

"Oh, I do. I just… They're prophetic."

Willow furrowed her brow. "What?"

"The night before Faith showed up, I dreamt about her. And remember those guys that came along when we… when you… uh, found Spike? I dreamt about them too, and lately also some other stuff. Little stuff. Like, remember when Dawn grabbed the butter and accidentally dropped it? I had dreamt about that the night before. That was a little weird. But, anyway, after I wake up from such a dream, I am exhausted and totally out of my mind. It's really terrible."

Willow looked graveled.

"The point is… It really, really, really, really, really… freaks me out."

Willow hushed for a moment. Then something seemed to occur to her. "Oh."

"What?"

"Oh!"

"What do you mean, 'Oh'?"

xxxxx

"A slayer," Zoey said, sitting at the kitchen table with everyone. "I cannot be a slayer. First of all… I'm not from here. Not from this world. I'm from a slayer-free world. And even if it was possible… I'm not that strong. I can't run very fast, I – I don't even have perfect eyesight. Any potential slayer needs to be like… strong and stuff, right? It can't be true."

"Well, the higher powers have their own plan of who they make a slayer and who they don't," Buffy said, "It's not just about that. I have met plenty of slayers who, at first sight, didn't seem perfect for the job: chubby girls, emotionally unstable and kind of violent girls – prime example for that right here."

"Hey!" Faith threw a chip at her.

"The point is, there is something special about that girl. It can be strength, yes, but also intelligence or good thinking or a certain way to handle things."

"And it all makes sense now," Willow added. "Slayers have prophetic dreams, but you probably know that. And that change I was sensing…"

Zoey sighed. "We don't even know for sure –"

"Well, then let's try it." Faith stood up. "Come on. Hit me. Show me what you got."

"What?"

"Come on!"

Everyone was looking at Zoey, so she slowly stood up and looked at Faith. "Oh, I can't. I –"

"Punch her already!" said Dawn.

"Fine." Zoey clenched her fist. She had never hit anyone before, not really. And to be honest, she wasn't really looking forward to doing so. Yes, she had thought about what it would be like to be a slayer. She'd always thought that it would be really cool because she would be all strong and everything, but right now everything just seems too real to find it in any way "cool," she thought.

"Alright, I'll punch her." And then Zoey punched her. She punched Faith. Just like that.

After doing so, she was totally shocked about what she'd just done. She had pushed Faith to the wall, which had caused some figures to fall down.

Faith rubbed her nose. "Yeah, there's no doubt, Z."

"Oh God," she said. "I'm a slayer."

"Welcome to the club," Buffy said.

After a moment of shock, Zoey slowly started smiling. "Dude, that is so cool!"

xxxxx

When the morning of the 25th arrived, Zoey woke up feeling all new. She had probably been a slayer for several days already, maybe weeks, but knowing it somehow made her feel a little less terrified. Well, but only a little. She couldn't help thinking that the higher powers (Zoey slowly started getting sick of that term) had given her slayer strength because she would have to fight at some point. But she didn't want to think about that. At least not that day: Christmas day.

She put on some clothes and opened the door. "Merry Christmas!" she said to Buffy, Xander, Willow, Dawn, Faith, Giles, Angel – and Spike – who were already sitting downstairs. "Is it so late already? Why are you guys all up?"

"Oh, it's pretty early," Dawn said, "The undead guys just wanna get some sleep afterwards." She was sitting closely next to Spike. The sight of the two of them made Zoey smile. She had always loved the bond between Spike and Dawn and seeing them reunited was almost as amazing as seeing him with Buffy.

"Right." She walked downstairs and sat down next to her. "Is there food? Sorry. I'm just kind of hungry."

"Yes, there is," Xander answered, "Willow made –"

A loud crash interrupted him.

"What the hell was that?" he asked.

"I don't know." Angel quickly got up to check. But before he could reach the door, it got smashed.

It was them. The demons that looked like humans. The ones who were after Spike.

"Let's try out those slayer powers," Zoey said and stood up.

"No." Buffy pulled her back. "Stay here. These guys are serious." She ran to the no more existent door and kicked and punched the guys, so did Faith. Zoey felt a little left out, but chose not to say anything. She would just stay with the other Scoobies. Like the big protector of the defenseless ones or something, she thought. This is one merry Christmas. Is this what it's like in the Buffyverse every year?

She couldn't even spend any more time thinking about that, because her powers were already needed. There were so many of the demons, all heading towards Spike. Zoey did the best she could, causing them to fall and hit their heads. Her moves weren't as great as Buffy's or Faith's, but hell, they had had over a decade of training. Sometimes she just punched them and punched them without actually planning to kill them. She knew they were evil, but she really didn't want to kill at that point. She didn't want to kill anyone. Or any…thing.

Spike was defending himself now too while Willow tried to make herself useful by doing a spell that would create a barrier, so the demons wouldn't be able to come any closer.

They were after Spike. The Gang was just in the way. He was their main target. And maybe he could take one of them, possibly two. But not a hundred.

…to be continued! Will the Scooby Gang be able to defeat them? How will Zoey adjust to being a slayer? When will they finally find the Transit? Stay tuned!