II

The Snow Globe

"Have a holly, jolly Christmas. It's the best time of the year...." Cordelia sang as she flung open the heavy drapes in Connor and Angel's room.

Connor glared out from under his blankets. "Is she always this cheerful in the morning?" he asked Angel who was barely moving in the bed next to his.

Angel grumbled as he poked his head out of his covers, "I dunno. I'm a night creature. I don't do mornings." His head disappeared back under the covers.

"C'mon sleepyheads it's 10 o'clock in the morning. It's time to get up," Cordelia enthused as she pulled Connor's covers off.

In the sudden cold air, Connor curled up into a ball. "Damn! It's cold! Go away!" he protested.

"It's a beautiful day out there!" Cordelia persisted. She reached for Angel's covers.

"Touch them and you'll die," Angel growled as he pulled the covers more tightly around him. "Remember. Vampire. Sun. Burn. Bad!"

"Oh don't be such a wimp," Cordelia teased as she breezed out of the room.

"Ha!" Connor laughed, "Sure, don't be a wimp, Daddy."

"Out!!!" Angel snapped from under his covers.

Connor snatched up his clothes from the floor where he had dumped them the night before. Hopping one-leggedly, he pulled his pants on. "See ya at breakfast, Dad," he laughed as he headed out of the room.

"That boy's not gonna reach nineteen," Angel muttered. Wrapping his blankets over his head and body he clambered out of the bed. He stomped over to the drapes and pulled mightily on the drawstring cord. The drapes, including the rod and the screws that held it to the wall, promptly fell with a loud clatter. "DAMN!" Angel cursed.



"Good morning!"Fred's perky voice greeted Angel as he stumbled into the dining room after throwing some clothes on.

"What's so good about it?" Angel grumpily replied.

"Nothin" Gunn answered with half-closed eyes.

"Jingle bell, jingle bell, jingle bell rock. Jingle bell time and jingle bell time...!" Cordelia sang as she bought out a large stack of pancakes.

"Dancing and prancing and jingle bell square in the frosty air," Fred chimed in as she helped Cordelia fill everybody's plates.

"What a bright time, it's the right time to rock the night away!" the two girls joined in duet.

"Oy!" Gunn groaned, slapping his forehead with an open palm.

"Thank god, Loren's not here to sing along with them," Angel commented through gritted teeth.

Connor's voice erupted in gales of laughter. He tipped backwards in his chair as he shook with laughter. Suddenly the chair fell, landing Connor on the floor in a thud. Connor quickly leaped to his feet. Covering his embarrassment as he rubbed his sore backside, he said quickly, "I meant to do that."

"Good move, Peter Pan," Gunn laughed.

Fred smacked him upside his head, "You're mean!" she said, even though she couldn't help laughing too.

"Okay guys, let's settle down," Cordelia ordered as she stifled her own giggles,. "Connor, you, sit. We're going to eat breakfast, then we're going shopping."

Some time after they had eaten and dressed Cordelia was organizing their shopping expeditions. "Fred and I are going to hit 5th avenue. You know, Saks, Barney's, Bergdorf Goodman and so on. Gunn, why don't you take Connor to the Metropolitan Museum of Fine Art?"

Gunn groaned. "An art museum? Do I have to?"

"Yeah, I think it'd be a great idea if you guys get to know each other better. Besides it's on 5th avenue too."

Connor glared back at Gunn. "But..."

"C'mon," Cordelia urged. "It'll be fun. Besides it's educational."

"And you, Angel...," Cordelia said thoughtfully.

"And I go back to bed." he finished for her.

"No, can't you find something constructive do? I dunno, do some lurking, Uhm, maybe, um, what do you do during the day?"

"Sleep." Angel supplied.

"Oh, look what I found in a box in the closet while I was getting the coats out," Fred said holding a heavy object in her hands.

"What is it?" Connor asked.

"It's a snow globe," she answered. "See," she explained, "When you turn it upside down and then back right side up again, it looks like it's snowing."

"Snowing," Connor said thoughtfully as he watched the sparkling flakes float down over a scene of the outside of Santa's workshop. "I've never seen it snow. What is it like?"

"Cold." Angel replied.

"Oh, it's wonderful," Fred said, "I remember once going to Denver for Christmas. It was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. The whole world seemed to be enveloped in a blanket of white. It was like time had stopped. Like the whole world was holding it's breath waiting for something special."

"Christmas?" Connor asked, his blue eyes turning dreamy. The hunter for a few moments become the lost boy he truly was. "Is that what it was waiting for?"

"Okay," said Cordelia, breaking the spell, "It's time to go shopping." She shoved coats into everyone's hands. "C'mon, c'mon, let's go," she urged, pushing everyone to the door.

Connor turned to say goodbye to Angel, "Uh, Angel, uh, Dad," he began uncertainly.

"Hug him," Cordelia said, "He's not going bite."

"You sure?" Connor said.

"I promise," Angel said with a smile, crossing his heart, "and hope to be staked."

"There's a thought..." Connor replied with a large grin.

"Guys. Hug already," Gunn grumbled.

Angel pulled Connor to him. For a moment Connor stood stiff, then taking a deep breath, he relaxed and returned the hug.

"Aww" the girls and Gunn chimed together.

Immediately Connor tried to break away, but Angel still held him for a moment longer, regretting all the hugs he had been cheated out of. Finally he let him go. Gruffly, he said to Gunn, "You take care of my son, you understand?"

"Like he was my own," Gunn replied.



Angel stared at the door for a few moments after it had closed. After all the hustle and bustle, the apartment seemed to be too quiet, too empty. He looked at his bedroom, tempted only briefly. He picked up the snow globe, turning it upside down and then right side up again. The flakes glittered as they slowly floated down. It reminded him of the globe he had gotten Connor when he was a baby, too short a time ago, nowhere near the 18 years it should have been if the boy had not been stolen away from him. Like Connor's childhood, it had shattered, never to be retrieved again.

Oddly, the more he studied the globe the more disturbed he felt. He could almost fancy that the green eyes of the red clad elf leaning on the oversize candy cane outside of Santa's workshop were sparkling with unnatural glee.

Angel shook himself with effort. Enough of this maudlin self pity. Maybe I'll go lurk around like Cordelia suggested, he thought as he headed out the door.

Behind him the snow globe shimmered, enlarged, then popped like a soap bubble. The elf, not much taller than two feet, hopped down from the table where Angel that put the globe. With a laugh the little creature, pulled on the straight end of large candy cane. It separated, revealing the deadly gleam of cold steel.