Part Nine

December 2011

"Ooh, look who's standing under the mistletoe," Dawn remarked as Xander stopped in the entrance way to the living room.

"Would that be me?" he asked innocently.

"I think it would be you," Dawn replied, walking slowly over to him.

As she arrived, Xander encased her body in his arms and bent down to kiss her.

"Oy! Get a room you two," was the call from the couch.

Xander and Dawn turned with silly grins on their faces. "Shut up, Cordy," Dawn teased.

Cordy huffed, not really serious. She had been the first one Dawn had called after that night, two weeks ago. Two hours later, when Cordy was able to get off the phone, she informed Wesley of the same.

Neither of them were totally surprised, although at first Cordelia did wonder if both of them were grabbing at the closest thing. But she could here how happy they were and who was she to rain on their parade. It was an unusual courtship to say the least, but in the end all she wanted was for them to be happy.

They had already decided, before that night, to have Xmas together, in Sunnydale. It was almost their family home for all of them, if not actual home and after Xander's return, Cordelia finally had a reason not to curse the place. Well not as much. The flipside had been that New Years would be spent in LA, which they were all happy about.

Xander and Dawn moved over and took the couch opposite Wesley and Cordelia. "So how is the agency going?" Xander asked.

"Not bad," Wesley replied. "Pretty quiet at this time of the year though. But it keeps us busy."

"You wouldn't guess how paranoid these stars are. I mean wow, and I use to want to be one of them," Cordelia added.

"You wouldn't want the fame?" Xander asked.

"Not if it meant three bodyguards following me everywhere I went. No thank you, leave that to others." Cordelia then grinned, "mind you I'm quite willing to charge to provide that service."

"That's our Cordy," Dawn laughed along with her.

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

"Wow, that smells delicious, Dawn," Wesley complimented her as Xander brought out the Xmas turkey.

Xander didn't say anything, but Dawn coughed loudly. Twice.

"What?" Wesley replied, clueless on whatever he said.

Cordelia leant over and informed him, "They both prepared the dinner."

"I'm sorry," Wesley said sincerely, "it smells delicious, both of you."

Xander had to laugh. "Don't worry about it. It's mostly Dawn's work any way."

Dawn reached up and grabbed Xander's hand, "What he means to say in his, 'I won't take credit for anything attitude' is that he is a wonderful cook and thank you."

Xander kissed the fingers on Dawn's hand before taking the champagne and filling everyone's glassed. After he was done, he stayed on his feat. The others looked at him expectantly, knowing he needed and wanted to do this.

"Umm, look I just wanted to say something, this being my first Christmas, post decade leap, that is," he said with a slight edge of humour, but they all realised that there was still some lingering pain over the gap in his life.

"I am so grateful to have you all around this table with me today. I may never have thought my life would have turned out like this, but I feel lucky today. But I can't forget that last Christmas, we had a much larger family. Some are lost to us, some are missing, but they are all very dear to me and I remember them all fondly, this special day." Xander wiped a tear that fell from his eye.

He raised his glass. "Absent friends."

At which point, Dawn, Cordelia and Wesley all stood up and said as one, "Absent Friends."

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

Feb 2012

Xander put his keys in the door and turned them, walking through the entrance and straight into the kitchen. He placed his bag on the table and then opened the fridge, grabbing the bottle of juice.

Reaching over to grab two glasses, he poured himself a drink, before taking a seat and placing the other glass on the table. The liquid fell effortlessly down his throat. In had been another long day at work. Not that he was complaining. He loved his job, and life was all together pretty good. Especially with the news he had.

Dawn, meanwhile had started her job with the local resort and a junior Public Relations Manager. Which apart from offering a nice career path and a very handy salary also gave her 4 weeks free accommodation at various resorts around the US. Something, which Dawn decided, was the final reason for taking the position.

"Xan?"

Xander looked up from where he was reading today's paper, to see Dawn walking into the kitchen. "Hi," he said with a smile, as Dawn sat down across from him. "How was your day?"

Dawn grabbed the juice and her glass that Xander had placed on the table. "It was fine. Dealing with the press is always a fine line between kindergarten and a nest full of vulture."

"I'm sure that made sense to someone," Xander teased, getting up to give her a welcome home kiss.

He moved his chair next to hers and wrapped his arms around her body. When he did, Dawn, let her body mould into his, savoring every moment of his embrace. "Now I remember why I love to come home."

"And I glad you do," Xander replied. "I've got some news as well."

"What is it honey?" Dawn asked.

"Well, we finish this job this week, and we don't start another one for a fortnight, so if you still want to take advantage of those free holidays, how about we take one."

Dawn's excitement rose. "You sure?" She had wanted to take one for the last month, but it seemed as though Xander would never get any time off. The early finish of his current job was a bonus that could not be passed up.

"Definitely. So where do you want to go?"

"Well, lets not worry about flying anywhere this time. So, how about San Diego?"

"It'll be great. So we'll leave Friday midday?"

Dawn nodded, before re-taking Xander's arms and wrapping them around her. Her mind already going into overdrive on ideas for the weekend. Their first holiday would not be one to forget.

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

Friday

Xander packed up his tools and placed them back in the box, before loading it into the back of his van. He was feeling particularly impatient this day. He had hoped to be finished at the workplace, by mid morning, but now it had reached midday. Finally he was on the home stretch.

He was looking forward to this time away together. It had been so long since Xander had been away for a holiday. The aborted cross country trip, that basically started and ended in Oxnard, was his only other holiday in recent memory. And that was either over two years ago, or twelve years ago, depending on your own point of view.

Their time together in Sunnydale had been great, but with all of the history hanging over their heads, Xander felt even just a weekend away could be heaven sent.

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

LA

Cordelia shut the door to her car, and locked it. She was running a little late, and didn't like it one bit.

"Bloody, primadona actors," she screamed, thankful that no one could hear her. She had arranged to be in the office from 2.00pm onwards, as Wesley had to be at a meeting at 1.30pm. They both didn't like leaving the office unattended by one of them, but felt 30 minutes couldn't be all that bad.

The lift doors opened and she got into it, pushing the third floor. Glancing at her watch, she consoled herself with the fact she was only 15 minutes later than she wanted to be.

As soon as the lift doors opened she stepped out wanting to get to her office as soon as possible. "Hi Maree," Cordelia said as she passed the receptionist, who was on the phone, unable to reply.

If Cordelia had been moving slower, she would have noticed the arm waving of the receptionist, who when she couldn't say anything, had been trying to get her attention.

Cordelia however was oblivious to those movements as she came up to her office and opened the door, puzzled as to why the lights were out. She reached over to turn them on, when a voice called out to her.

"Hello, Cordelia."

The shock of hearing that voice caused Cordelia to jump, and she turned on the light in one movement, gasping out in shock as the face of the person was revealed to her.

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

Dawn placed her bag, into the trunk of the car. Xander had called to tell her that he was on her way home, and she decided to pack whatever she could. Like Xander she was extremely excited about going away with him this weekend. She had never been away for a weekend with a boyfriend before. Heck she had never had a serious boyfriend to go away with. It had also been ages since she had been away for a proper holiday. Even if this was only going to be five days away, she was determined for it to be the best five days she had ever had.

It was hard for her to even think of the time, just two months ago when she thought Xander was going to tell her that he would be moving out. She had asked him how he had disguised his feelings so well, to which he replied, he thought he hadn't and wondered how long she would put up with him, being a lovesick monkey. Which of course made her laugh. Funny thing was, he had no idea that she felt that same way, even though Dawn thought she had been totally transparent over those last few months.

But that was all behind her, and the depth of Dawn's feelings for Xander continued to grow with every day they spent together.

Hearing a beep, she turned to see Xander pull up on the side of the road. He quickly got out of the car and walked over, giving her a quick kiss. "I'm going to take a shower, then we can go, okay?"

Dawn nodded. "I'll grab your suitcases and pack them in the car," she replied, thankful they had prepared most things the night before.

A few minutes later, Xander came down the stairs, looking totally refreshed. Dawn was waiting for him on the couch, and got up when he appeared at the top of the stairs, meeting him at the bottom.

He took her hand in his, all the time gazing into her eyes. "Thanks," he simply said.

Dawn kissed him, but had no idea why he was thanking her. "What for?"

Xander just smiled. "For being you."

To which Dawn kissed him again, though this time they didn't break the kiss for a couple of minutes. When they did, Dawn, still holding onto Xander's hand, opened the door and almost pulled him through it. "Comon, if we don't leave now, we probably never will," she said, part of her wondering if that wouldn't be a bad thing.

When they were both through the door, she shut and locked it.

They had only been out the door for a minute, but were already in the car, ready to drive off when the phone started ringing. There was no way they could hear the phone in the car, and Xander and Dawn drove off for their week away together, while their phone kept ringing.

On the sixth ring the answering machine answered.

"Hi, you reached the Summers' residence. Xander and I aren't home at the moment, please leave a message after the beep."

"Dawn!...Xander!...Comon you guys pick up..." Cordelia's voice came through loud and clear, although there was a slight panic to her voice. "Are you there!..." she yelled.

When there was no response, she had no choice but to leave a message. "If you aren't there, please ring me back when you get in. It's very important. It's Angel. He was here. I think he is heading your way..." Cordelia paused, trying to work out how to say the next part.

"He's...he's not the same."

End Part 9