W is for Waiting

Callie squirmed impatiently as she stood in line with her parents, awaiting her turn to sit on Santa's lap in the mall. There were still another five or six children ahead of her in line, and the four-year-old was growing quite fidgety.

"When's it gonna be my turn?" she demanded yet again, and Buffy smoothed a hand over her blonde head, as much in an attempt to smooth down her unruly waves as to calm her.

"Soon, honey…just a few more minutes…"

"You said that a while ago and we still don't get to," Callie grumbled, and Buffy sighed, looking down at her with frustration. She had tried to make her look sweet and pretty for the picture, btu her tomboy daughter had not only balked at this, but also managed to scuff herself up even after Buffy had wrestled her into dress clothes. Her tights had a hole, her Mary Janes were scuffed, her red velvet dress wrinkled, and the ribbon in her hair was drooping. Buffy knew better than to try to fix her again though- every time she did, Callie pulled away, fussing even more.

Buffy glanced over at Faith and saw, to her equal annoyance and amusement, that Faith was just as fidgety as her child. She was swaying back and forth, distributing her weight from foot to foot as the dark eyes nearly identical to Callie's glazed over with boredom. When Buffy nudged her she jumped.

"What?" Then, seeing Callie's scowl, "Uh..did I ever tell you about the time when Mommy and me killed a vam- I mean a big bear- together, right after we'd first met?"

'Bear' was the code word they had taught Callie to use in referring to vampires in public. It was almost as much for Faith as for her though, as she was equally likely to blurt something out as her preschool aged daughter.

"No," Callie replied, only slightly distracted, but Faith went with it.

"Alright, well, this one had a name, it was a big bear named Kakistos," Faith began, and she bent to hoist Callie onto her hip, not only to keep her still, but also so she could talk to her more softly. "It was a really big bad one, one of the worst ever, and it did really bad things to Mama…so it was coming after us, Cal, and Mommy was really scared. She was so scared she was almost crying, and she was just screaming and wouldn't move, about to break my eardrums 'cause it was so shrill-"

"Faith, I was not!" Buffy said indignantly, "that was YOU!"

Faith waved her outburst off with a shrug, ignoring her as she went on as if Buffy had never said anything.

"And Mommy was crying and screaming and wouldn't move 'cause she was scared shi- SHEEPLESS. And so I had to grab her and run, save her ass- uh, anatomy. And I got up a relaly huge plank of wood, 'cause this vam- bear- was so big it needed…"

Buffy just shook her head as Faith continued to narrate; it wasn't' very long before Callie's turn had arrived. As Faith set her down and Callie ran up to climb onto the man's lap, both of them realized at once and froze, praying she wouldn't notice, even as the shock flashed across the Santa's face as well.

Oh please don't let her notice, please don't' let her notice…

But it was too late… as Callie sat perched in the Santa's lap, peering up at him with wide eyes, she was already speaking in a tone hushed with awe.

"Uncle Xander… UNCLE XANDER IS SANTA CLAUS?!"