A/N: I promised an interlude about a holiday with the kids if I got enough reviews for chapter 4. I received enough to fulfil the readers part of the bargain, this is my part. However, after the number of reviews I received from the last chapter I am unsure of your reactions to Caitlin's mother. In fact, the response was so lacklustre it is only my promise that has me writing these light-hearted scenes so quickly.

Disclaimer: .With only a few days before the one-year anniversary of my beginning as a fan fiction writer, all I can say is that enough reviews will easily sway me to update very quickly. I want to post something very special on the anniversary, but if you lot aren't all that interested I won't bother. All I can say is that the next chapter of Progeny should be a very special one, answering lots of questions - even if you haven't asked a lot of them. I'm only posting this today because it is the one-year anniversary of me joining Fan Fiction dot net, (my time, probably not yours) and I'd like to think I've come a long way in a year. Lots of reviews would convince me of this, of course. A happy writer writes quickly.

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Interlude

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Easter

Caitlin Roselyn Barclay was thinking. She was thinking very hard. It was almost Easter, which was what she was thinking about. Well, to be more specific the chocolate that comes at Easter was what she was thinking about. To be more specific still, she was thinking about ways to get more chocolate.

"My mom says that the Easter Bunny comes into your house and puts chocolate eggs in secret spots for you to find," Seth informed Katie. As clever as the boy was, both he and his younger sister recognised that Katie was clearly the superior schemer. Not that Seth would admit that a girl was better than him at anything, of course.

"Why doeth a wabbit have chocowate eggth?" Sarah lisped.

Katie frowned and stomped over to her Auntie Bit, who was doing boring things like looking at books with no pictures again. "Auntie Bit," she whined, pulling at her shirt. It was a carefully calculated whine, one designed to get an answer with maximum speed. "Do bunnies eat chocolate?"

"No," Dawn muttered distractedly and continued to study frantically. Never again would she blow off study time in order to go to a party. At this rate her Easter psych assignment would ever be finished in time.

Katie trudged back to her place on the couch. She thought some more. "Maybe…" she began thoughtfully. "Maybe that's why he gives the chocolate away."

"So what do we do?" Seth asked.

"We need more chocolate," Katie pronounced.

"My mom said that all rabbits should be killed," Seth added brightly.

"She finkth they should be cwubbed to deaf wif a big thtick," Sarah explained carefully, quoting her mother.

Katie thought about this very carefully. She thought about it from all angles, looking for a flaw in the idea that was forming. If they clubbed the Easter Bunny to death with a big stick, then they would get lots of chocolate. It was a flawless plan. Now, all they needed was a big stick.

Skipping over to her Auntie Bit, Katie tugged her shirt again. "Auntie Bit," she whined. "Can we have a big stick?"

"Uh huh, sure," Dawn mumbled, scribbling frantically. "Wait, what?"

"A big stick," Katie reiterated, holding her arms out at full length to demonstrate.

"Why do you want a big stick?" Dawn asked suspiciously.

"So we can slay the Easter Bunny and take his chocolate eggs," she replied innocently.

Dawn's mouth opened. Then it closed. "You can't kill the Easter Bunny," Dawn explained weakly.

"Why not?" Seth asked loudly.

"Because killing is wrong," Dawn said automatically. She was just the babysitter for an hour. She wasn't prepared for this line of questioning.

"But Daddy and Auntie Fayt slayed the bogeyman who was trying to live in your house," Katie said helpfully.

Dawn cursed internally. Trust a five year old to remember something like that. "It's okay to kill demons," she tried.

Katie's bottom lip started to wobble. "You want to kill my Daddy?"

"Bad demons!" Dawn corrected desperately.

"Mommy thayth bunnieth are demonth," Sarah inserted, "and we should cwub dem to deaf wif a big thtick."

Dawn's mind raced. "Uh, if you kill the Easter Bunny he won't be able to come back again next year with more Easter eggs."

The children dwelt on this. While morality was above them, calculated self interest certainly was not. "We better not kill him, then," Katie said reluctantly.

"Yeah," Seth agreed, although the decision obviously pained him. "Maybe we should just hit him really hard in the head until he goes to sleep like my Dad that time when he got hit in the head really hard and went to sleep." Sarah nodded solemnly.

"Maybe you should just wake up really early and catch him," Dawn said weakly. "Without hitting him on the head."

"No hitting?" Seth asked sceptically.

"No hitting," Dawn said firmly.

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Halloween

Seth was looking very handsome. He knew this because his Mom told him so, and Mom's can't tell lies. It's like the rules or something. Seth liked rules. They told you not to do really fun things, so if you knew the rules then you knew all the funnest things you could do.

He was dressed up like Greg from the Wiggles, because Greg was the best one because he did magic tricks and that was lots better than sleeping all the time. Anybody could sleep all the time, but doing magic was heaps better. He was wearing a yellow skivvy and an eye patch, because Greg should have an eye patch like a pirate because that's just cooler, and fake vampire teeth, because Greg should be a vampire. Not vampire teeth like Spike, though, because Spike couldn't do anything too cool like turn into a bat or fly. He was a vampire like Dracula, because Dracula could do magic and so could Greg.

Seth was Greg, the vampire pirate Wiggle. He looked way, way more handsomer than Katie did. Who ever heard of a Princess Wiggle Jeff?

"Hey kiddos," Faith said. Faith looked cool too. She was wearing a jacket just like Spike's. Seth wished he had a jacket like that. "What are you all supposed to be?"

"I'm a princess Wiggle Jeff," Katie boasted loudly, "because Jeff is the best Wiggles because you have to say Wake Up Jeff like I did to my Daddy on Easter only Jeff doesn't swear as much as Daddy does when you wake him up."

Faith grinned. "And what are you, Seth?"

"I'm a vampire pirate Wiggle Greg, but not a vampire like Spike, a vampire like Dracula because Spike can't do magic and Dracula can and so can Greg," Seth explained rationally.

"I'm a thkewington," Sarah said, jumping up and down on the spot excitedly.

"A skeleton?" Faith asked.

Sarah nodded hugely. "oooOOOooo," she moaned.

"Skeletons don't go 'oooOOOooo'," Seth said derisively.

"They do too," Sarah snapped. "Becauthe I'm a ghotht thkewington!"

"Why don't we head to the first house?" Faith asked, forestalling a sibling wrestling match.

"Yay!"

"Arg!"

"oooOOOooo."

Seth limped ahead of Faith, because limping is way, way cooler than walking, and knocked on the door as hard as he could. An old lady opened the door.

"Hello there," she said cheerfully, before a look of confusion crossed her face. "Don't all of you look… nice?"

"oooOOOooo," Sarah groaned, and the old lady, feeling on much safer ground now, gave her some candy.

"I'm a princess," Katie said brightly, and the old lady gave her candy, muttering under her breath about poor parents, unable to afford a proper costume.

"I'm a vampire," Seth growled before affecting and accent, "I vont your bloody candy!"

"oooOOOooo," wailed Sarah.

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Christmas

Caitlin Roselyn Barclay had had the best Christmas Day in the whole wide world ever. She started the day by being extra nice to Daddy by playing with the TV instead of waking him up, and it was so totally not her fault that the shelf had changed or something and the TV broke. Besides, even though Daddy swore a lot Katie had really given him a present. He was always saying how he wanted a new TV and now he could get one.

Then had been the presents. Katie must have been a very good girl this year because she got a Barbie doll and lots of outfits and a Madagascar DVD and some new shoes and some new dresses and a new jacket that wasn't like Daddy's jacket but was still really nice but she didn't get a pony which she thought wasn't fair because even though Auntie Bit said there was no room in the house for a pony she knew there was lots of room in her closet.

There had even been some presents from some of Daddy's friends, like a hoola hoop from Jim and some lipstick from Amber and the bestest toy ever from Clem. Daddy told her his name was Some-bloody Squid-thing and he was extra cuddly and had lots and lots of arms and a little hat even. Katie would have to remember to have an extra big hug for Clem.

Then they'd had a big dinner at Auntie Fayt's house and Katie ate three whole pieces of pizza, but without the crust because it was the yuckiest thing ever and didn't even count. Daddy had asked Auntie Fayt why they weren't having chicken or turkey or lamb or pork even and Auntie Fayt told Daddy to shut up, which wasn't very nice but Katie thought it was okay because Daddy only laughed so no-one's feelings got hurt.

Then Katie had played chasie with Seth and Sarah and Seth one, but it wasn't fair because Katie couldn't go in the mud because it would make her new shoes dirty and dirty shoes weren't very pretty and Katie wanted to look extra pretty for the photo that they took at the end of every Christmas.

Now Katie was bored, though. Her Daddy had taken her to a cemtemary and he had put a pretty white flower down on the ground in front of three different funny shaped rocks, only she didn't think they would grow very good because he didn't even stick the ends in the ground and they weren't potatoes because potatoes growed everywhere all the time.

"Daddy," Katie whined. "What are we doing here?"

"Just paying my respects, Kitten," Daddy said in a funny voice.

"Why did you put the flowers on the ground?" Katie asked curiously.

Spike picked her up and pointed to one of the funny stones that was a little bit away from the other two. "That's where we buried your mum when she died, Platelet."

"Oh," Katie said. "What are those two?"

"Well," he said, "that one there is where your Auntie Bit's mum is buried."

"Who's that one?" Katie asked, pointing to the one next to Auntie Bit's mom's one.

Spike hesitated. "That was someone very special to me once."

Katie thought about that for a minute, but before she could ask any more questions her Daddy turned around and they went home.

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A/N: There we go. I managed to make a filler that wasn't completely filler. Yay me. This is my Anniversary Of One Year At Fan Fiction Dot Net posting. If you're all kind enough to review with your thoughts on this fic, or on any of my other fics, I might even be motivated enough to post again in three days to celebrate the year since I first posted at Fan Fiction dot Net. So REVIEW!