Suddenly he felt the hard floor beneath him turn soft, the stench of blood faded and the room became warmer. He lifted his head from his hands to find himself back in his own bedroom, as it had been when he had gone to bed. He was home!

Angel leapt out of bed, full of energy. He could sense that the sun had come up, so it must be morning, but was it Christmas morning? He ran downstairs chanting

"I'm not evil, I'm not insane and I'm not dead!" at the top of his voice, with a huge grin on his face. He picked up the phone and dialled. There were several rings before a weary voice answered,

"Hello, have a holly jolly Christmas, wake me up at this time on a holiday again and die."

"Lorne?" Angel enquired. "Lorne it's me! Merry Christmas! It is Christmas right?"

"Hey Angel! How are you? Have you gone insane?" Lorne replied.

"I am NOT insane" Angel said in a rather edgy tone. "Hey could you do me a favour?"

"Look sweet-pea, I am slowly but surely loosing the will to live here. I am talking to very unusually happy vampire at 6am on Christmas morning with a killer hangover, as much as I appreciate the thought, a serenade from you right now might just finish me off."

"No, no. I don't need a reading, although I'll sing if you want. I need you to go shopping for me. Christmas shopping."

"How about I book you into an asylum, somehow that seems more appropriate. Honey, its Christmas day. The stores are closed."

"Come on, this is America, somewhere must be opened. There is a Christmas dinner in it for you!"

"With cranberry sauce?" said Lorne, sounding increasingly tempted.

"With cranberry sauce. Ok here is what I want you to get, meet me here in four hours…" Angel proceeded to describe a very large list of Christmas items.

After his telephone conversation with Lorne, Angel was restless and unsure about what to do. He trotted back upstairs, washed and changed. After much thought about the previous night, Angel contemplated calling Lorne to cancel. He didn't do this sort of thing. He was way out of his depth. All he wanted was a quiet day to himself. Looking around the room that had seen so much death and devastation the night before, Angel knew what he had to do. Lost in these thoughts, Angel was startled to hear Lorne call his name downstairs. As Angel descended, he was greeted with Lorne singing a perfect rendition of 'Hark the Herald Angels Sing'.

"Morning big guy! Have to say I was a little surprised and a lot peeved off when you called, but running around all of LA this morning trying to hide green skin and red horns whilst asking every passing stranger where the nearest open store was made me realise just how fun Christmas could be!" chirped Lorne, with just a hint of sarcasm, which Angel chose to ignore.

"Great! You are driving, come on!" Angel pulled his long black duster on and headed for the back entrance to the hotel. Lorne reluctantly followed, struggling to carry several large bags of groceries.

Ducking under a large blanket in the back seat of his convertible, Angel tried to explain to Lorne what had happened the previous night in between panicked yells of instructions such as "Red means stop, Lorne!", "Watch out! Old people can't run very fast!" and "That arrow means that we shouldn't really be going this way!".

"Angel, are you sure that you weren't just having a bad dream? I mean I'm open to anything, really, but that sounds an awful lot like a story that's been told a few times before."

"I know, I know, but it felt real. If it was a dream, it was pretty vivid. But, if all that stuff was in my future, how could you never see it, when you read me?"

"Do you ever actually listen to a word I say? How many times in the past few months have I told you how gloomy, bleak and other such depressing adjectives your outcome would be if you continued on the path of self-destruction? I don't see exactly what will happen but I get a gut feeling about what kind of direction you are headed in."

"Huh." Angel said in a slightly defeated tone.

"So you are telling me that I have been driving myself crazy, unsuccessfully trying to make you see what you were doing to yourself, and you didn't listen to a peep. However as soon as a couple of dead people end up in your bedroom at night, you are a new man? Great, it's reassuring to know I'm not wasting my time."

Feeling slightly foolish and unsure how to respond, Angel decided to keep quiet.

"It's here, just here!" Angel informed a few minutes later as he seen Cordelia's apartment block approaching in the distance.

"Yeah, I know, I know where my friends live."

Lorne pulled up beside the apartment block. "You had better run up. I'm not adding fire fighting to my list of unlikely yet undertaken Christmas day activities." Angel pulled the blanket over his head and made for Cordelia's apartment, leaving a trail of small puffs of smoke behind him. He stopped outside her front door, sighed heavily and knocked sharply. The door opened and a cheery Cordy popped her head out.

"Angel?"

Angel looked at her with a solemn face.

"There's a problem. A demon down in the caves, been killing holidaymakers for months. I just figured out where it is and how to kill it, but I'll need help."

Cordelia took a deep breath as though counting to ten.

"No."

"Sorry?"

"No, it can wait Angel. We get one day off a year and this is it. I don't care if you think that Christmas is a waste of time, I, we don't." Just then, Gunn and Wesley appeared behind Cordelia.

"Is there a problem?" asked Wesley

"Yeah there is. Scrooge here wants us to work today. Some demon in a cave that has been there for months, and he wants us to kill it, today. Of course I told him where to go." Cordelia retorted.

"Hang on a minute. I am your boss, and if you want to keep your job I suggest that you, all of you buck up and do as I say." Said Angel sternly. He heard Lorne struggling upstairs with the groceries and realised that his charade was almost over. Cordy, Gunn and Wesley all began to respond aggressively almost all at once.

"Well what if I don't want to keep my stupid job?' Cordy ranted.

"I must say Angel, this is most unfair of you." Chirped Wesley.

"Yeah come on man, a few more days wont hurt." Reasoned Gunn.

As Lorne reached the top of the stairs, Angel's scorn widened into a huge grin. His three employees stared at him, utterly confused.

"And I say that we should all have Christmas dinner together as a family. I say that we should all have the day off and forget about anything that happens outside of this apartment just for one day. Merry Christmas guys." Angel watched in amusement as his three friends switched glances in astonishment.

"Merry Christmas Angel!" grinned Cordelia before leaping forward to give him a hug. When she let him go, Gunn and Wesley, with cheery smiles on their faces, both wished Angel a Merry Christmas and offered him a handshake. Just then Lorne appeared at his side and dropped the bags he has been carrying, slouched over, gasping for breath.

"Well this is touching, really, I'm crying inside. However, I'll be crying outside soon if someone doesn't help me here!"

"Presents!" squealed Cordy excitedly.

Lorne, Angel, Cordy, Wesley and Gunn all sat around Cordy's dining table, eating, laughing and talking. Wesley frequently letting everyone know about the subtle differences between a British Christmas meal and an American one, with an occasional polite yet genuine "No kidding' or "Really?" from Gunn or Cordelia. Lorne would occasionally sing a Christmas number at the request of his felloe diners, and needed little persuasion to do so. Cordelia reminisced about everything that used to happen at Christmas when she lived in Sunnydale with her then, rich parents. She then looked down in slight guilt as Gunn had told how he risked life and limb to provide for his sister, Alana, when they were growing up on the streets but perked up when he described how happy it made him to see her with her gifts on Christmas morning. Angel sat back, watched and listened. He took the occasional bite of food, although he could barely taste it and had no need for it, in order not to offend Wesley. He waited, anxious that he would be asked about his previous Christmas experiences, but it seemed that his friends knew better. Not because they feared his reaction, but they didn't want to stir painful memories.

"You doing okay there Angel?" asked Cordelia.

"Yeah, yes I'm fine…I'm good!" stammered Angel, "Just thinking".

"Oh, ok. Well I'm really glad that you decided to come. Why did you come?"

Angel sighed and decided that if he ever told his colleagues about his bizarre Christmas Eve experience, now would not be the time.

"Just thought about it I suppose. I wasn't really looking forward to spending the day on my own." Angel lied.

Cordy smiled, "I don't think that you get how much it means, to all of us, that you are here. Little things like this make all the difference Angel." She then returned to a conversation that she was having with Gunn about a strange dream that he had had the previous night.

"Cordy, can I use your telephone?" Angel asked.

"Of course, but why? Oh."

"The little things right?"

Cordy gave Angel a reassuring smile. "Exactly. Merry Christmas from us too ok?"

Angel stood up and made for the telephone. He picked up the receiver and dialled a telephone number that he knew, as long as he lived, he would never forget. He waited; each ring seemed to go on for an age. Then after six rings, someone answered.

"Hey! Summer's residence".

Angel knew the voice immediately. "Hey Dawn. Is Buffy home?"

"Uh, yeah. Is that you Angel?"

"Yeah. Is she there?"

"Only if you are not gonna call her away to some weird thing in LA."

Angel let out a small laugh, was it any wonder no one ever expected a social call from him? "No weird things. Promise. Just called to say Merry Christmas."

"This is Angel right?"

"Yes."

"And you are not evil?"

"Nope."

"Okay cool, I'll go get her. Oh and Merry Christmas Angel!"

"Merry Christmas Dawn."

Angel heard whispering, and then footsteps towards the phone.

"Angel?" It was Buffy.

"Hey. Uh, just called to say I hope you are having, a, uh, good Christmas."

There was a short pause.

"Yeah, yeah, well as good as it gets in Sunnydale. Is everything okay?"

"Yip, everything is great. I'm actually having Christmas dinner at Cordelia's just now. Oh, and Cordelia and Wesley…and I wish you and the guys a Merry Christmas."

Angel heard Buffy's voice grow faint, she had moved away from the receiver.

"Angel wishes everyone a Merry Christmas!"

"Merry Christmas Angel!" returned a chorus of familiar voices.

"All of the guys are here, you might have heard."

"Yeah, well I guess I should go now. Hope you have a good day."

"You too."

"Okay, bye."

"Angel, wait!"

"Yeah?"

"Thank you for calling."

"No problem."

"Merry Christmas Angel."

"Merry Christmas Buffy."

Angel returned the receiver and vowed to practice his social phone call skills.

Angel returned to the dining table. "How did it go?" asked Cordy.

"Fine I guess. I just don't usually do…well you know what I mean." Angel replied awkwardly.

"Well, you know what they say; practice makes perfect!"

Angel sat back in thought. He had made an effort, he had come to Cordelia's, he had called Buffy, and if he was honest with himself, he hadn't really enjoyed any of it. His friends before him spoke about lives that he could not possibly relate to, and just the sound of Buffy's voice was enough to make him feel as though a part of him had just been ripped out. At this precise moment all he wanted to do was leave and be in his own company. But, less than twelve hours before, three spirits had shown him exactly why this was a bad idea. But what did they know? Now that he thought about it, were they even real? He was once the most feared vampire on earth, and now he dedicated his life to saving people, he had saved the world. Twice. After everything that he had seen, everything that he knew, was he prepared to let, what was probably a bad dream, dictate how be behaved from now on? Prepared to be someone he wasn't?

"I'm gonna go now."

"But Angel, you barely just got here." Said a concerned looking Wesley.

"I'll see you tomorrow."

And with that he was gone.