Chapter 10.
Almost to the end. Will Buffy choose her calling as Ms. Santa Claus, or will she be with Xander?
Connor can hear her sobbing so hard and he feels for her. He wants to make her stop, but he doesn't know how. He wants to punch the living daylights out of that Xander Harris for making her have such a horrible date, but he can't. Buffy would get mad.
Everyone enters the house and they all sit down in the living room. Buffy's tears finally subside and she could be understood as she begins to tell them all what happened on her date.
Both Joyce and Willow try to hold their laughter in, but could not help it. They burst out laughing hysterically. Buffy looks at them as the two try to compose themselves, when they see Buffy not enjoying their laughing at her story.
"I'm sorry, Buffy," says Willow. "I guess it was my fault. I shouldn't have told you to use your powers. You were nervous and your emotions were loopy."
"You told her to use her powers?" says Connor to Willow.
"Don't get mad at Willow, Connor," says Buffy. "The date was a disaster to begin with. I should have never gotten involved with him. It was the wrong thing to do and I'm not going to see him again."
"Buffy, you were happy when you talked about him for the first time," says Joyce. "How could you say that you don't want to see him again?"
"I just don't."
Giles walks into the room and everyone looks up at him. He heads over to Buffy's side and he takes her hand in his.
"You were right. You've always said that getting personal with humans lead to trouble. I've followed the rules all my life until now. Now I know it's true."
"No, it's not," says Giles. "Humans are difficult to understand, but there is one thing we have in common with them."
"What's that?"
"Love. Humans have a lot of it. Sometimes they don't use it the right way and sometimes they only use it on holidays. My point is that because this young man, a believer or not, has gotten the courage to ask you out every time he saw you, then that should point to one thing."
"What?"
"That perhaps as much as you love him, he loves you in return."
"I want to believe that, but I can't. I'm sorry. I'm going to go." Buffy gets up and heads to her room.
"That was really nice what you said to her, dear," says Joyce.
"I tried," says Giles as he tries to get up. Connor quickly helps him. "Connor, you've been a great help. She'll need some time to sort this through, could you…?"
"No need to ask," says Connor. "How you feeling?"
"Pretty good. Came back from the doctors and as you can see not much progress. Buffy will have to do the round trip herself. I really hope she is up to it."
"I'm sure she will."
The next day, Christmas Eve, Buffy has an early start and is already in the shop checking out the last minute stuff before the big ride. She heads over to the stall, where the reindeers are kept and makes sure they are all ready for the flight.
Connor finally catches up to her in her office. He closes the door and walks up to her. Buffy is checking her list for the second time and is ignoring Connor, who is walking over to her desk.
"Buffy?" says Connor. Buffy doesn't answer him and kept on checking her lists. Connor puts his hand on her list. She looks at him.
"What do you want?" asks Buffy, annoyed that he interrupted her.
"I want you to stop."
"I can't. I need to finish this."
"No! You need to relax. Look, I don't think…"
"Don't even finish that sentence."
"Buffy…"
"Excuse me, I need to finish this." Buffy puts her attention back on her lists. Connor walks away and towards the door. He stops and turns around. Rolling his eyes, he opens the door and leaves the room.
Willow catches up to Connor as he exits the office and pulls him over to a corner. He is surprised and looks at her as she looks around to make sure that no one is listening.
"We need to do something," says Willow. "I think that she really has strong feelings for this guy and he has feelings for her, too."
"What do you want to do?" asks Connor. "She won't stop working."
"She needs to go to that Christmas party. I've got his number." Willow shows Connor the card that Xander had given to Buffy. She then pulls out her cell phone.
"He's going to know you're not Buffy."
"I've got that covered." Willow pulls out a voice changer device. "I was playing with it with Buffy and I've got her voice reading." She speaks into the phone and then plays it back to Connor.
"Hi, my name is Buffy." The voice sounds exactly like Buffy's.
"Wow."
"Those tech guys are great." Willow smiles as she starts to dial Xander's number.
"Hello," says Xander on the other line.
"Hi, it's Buffy," says Willow in Buffy's voice.
"Oh, I'm glad you called."
"I want to apologize about last night and I would like to come to your Christmas party."
"Really, I mean that's great. What time can I pick you up?"
"Um, I'll meet you there."
"Okay. I'll see you then."
"Bye."
"Bye."
"She is so going to kill you," says Connor as Willow hangs up.
"Nah," says Willow. "She loves me. She'd never kill me."
"How are we going to get her there? She'll never go."
"That's your part."
"My part!"
"Yeah, I call and you get her there."
"Gee, thanks."
"Now scoot." Willow pushes him over to Buffy's office.
"What should I say?"
"Be commanding and lie to her."
"Good idea." Connor opens the door and walks over to her desk. Buffy rolls her eyes when she sees him.
"What now?" asks Buffy.
"I need you to do a pick up."
"Pick up?"
"It's important. It needs to be done at around six."
"That's cutting it close. I'm needed here."
"Everything is fine and I'll handle it. I'll send a driver with you."
Later that day, Buffy heads to her house to take a shower and pick her clothes for tonight. Joyce comes over to Buffy's room and sees her in her pink robe trying to decide what to wear.
"I think that dress would be nice," says Joyce.
"It's too fancy, Mom," says Buffy.
"So what?"
"I'll think about it."
After her shower, Buffy actually decides to wear the dress that Joyce suggested and heads outside to the car that waits for her to take her to the pick up she needed to do. Buffy thinks that this pick up is very mysterious, but decides to ignore her intuitions and gets into the car.
The car has tinted windows and Buffy can hardly see outside. She wonders where the pick up is. The car then stops and Buffy grabs the handle to exit, but someone is already opening it for her. Buffy pulls her hand back and sees the door open.
When the door is completely open, she finally sees who the person is. She is surprised to see this person and hesitates to come out of the car to take his hand. Buffy glares at the driver of her car, then takes the guy's hand and steps out.
"I'm so glad you could make it," says Xander.