~~I still don't own any of the characters from the shows~~~

Gabrielle had just barely pulled herself together emotionally when she felt a snowball hit her in the back. She twirled around ready to scream at whoever had tossed the snowball at her. Her scream of rage died on her lips as she recognized the person despite the girl looking like a cross between a laundry basket explosion and the abominable snowman. Her layers of mismatched clothes were caked with snow. "Sylvie!"

Sylvie smiled, "Hey, you do still remember me."

"What are you doing here?"

"I travel all this way via portal and all I get is what are you doing here?" She pouted even as she tossed another snowball at Gabrielle, "Pelting you with snow, silly." Sylvie watched her target twist and slide out the way of her snowball faster than most shifters could have managed. "Well crap, guess I need more snowballs." She tossed her last snowball at Gabrielle then made a frantic dash for the corner of the shed trying to get enough cover to have time to make at least one more snowball before Gabrielle could retaliate.

Gabrielle wasted no time in starting her own snowball collection.

Willow chuckled as the two snowman look-a-likes walked into the entryway. "You two had better go get changed so we can start opening presents soon. Besides, auntie Buffy is supposed to be getting here by portal soon. She'll want to see all her munchkins."

Gabrielle nodded, "Be back in a bit mom."

Willow grinned as she watched her daughter and friend head off down the hall. She headed off toward the portal room.

Gabrielle was barely across the threshold of her tower before she started stripping off her wet clothes and leaving them in a pile on the stone floor. "You should probably get out of yours as well."

Sylvie closed the door behind her. She worked on extracting herself from her collection of layers as she gazed around her friend's room. She smiled when she noticed some of her own artwork on her friend's wall. She was slightly surprised by the lovely crystal frames that surrounded her work. She wasn't sure her work justified such expensive frames. They did however make her artwork even better so she wasn't going to complain.

Gabrielle smiled as she watched her friend strip down to her undies. "So why did you hit me with that first snowball?"

"You looked like you needed some cheering up, so what happened?

Gabrielle sighed and flopped down on her leather couch, "Rose and Trista…"

"Hey that's great for Rose… Why aren't you happy for her?"

Gabrielle looked away from her friend, "I am happy for her it's just…"

Sylvie blinked, "You're afraid she isn't going to like you anymore aren't you?"

"What Trista?"

"No silly, Rose."

Gabrielle blushed, "That's ridiculous."

Sylvie grinned, "You're just afraid that now that she has Trista to play with she isn't going to mess around with you, aren't you?"

"Well the twins have been entertaining Luna… and they haven't wanted to do anything."

"Have you even talked to them about it?"

Gabrielle shook her head.

Sylvie sat down on the couch next to Gabrielle, "I'm not even going to try to say I understand how everything works between you and your siblings as you make shifters look modest, but give them some time it's only been a couple of days. Just because you get a new toy doesn't mean you are going to throw out the old one. With a little bit of time I'm sure things will work out.

"I guess I was acting like a cry baby wasn't I?"

Sylvie holds her hands about a foot apart, "A little bit."

"Brat."

Sylvie smiled, "Maybe so, but we should get changed."

Gabrielle smiled, "Do I have too? I'm having too much fun just sitting here."

Sylvie rolled her eyes, "Lech…"

"Details."

Leo tried to fight the blush that was threatening to creep up his face as he found himself silently reading the note that was attached to his gift from Lexie. 'Nookie movies, share with your siblings.' He could feel all of the eyes in the room on him as he quickly palmed the note and carefully tucked the dvd case in his stash of already opened presents. "Thanks Lexie."

Lexie grinned, "Don't worry you'll love them."

Gabrielle snickered, "Movie night."

Arthur Weasley frowned, "Those are muggle movies?"

Lexie chuckled, "Yeah latest thing, don't worry I got you some documentaries on old muggle technology. I've even set up a DVD player for you to watch them on. You just have to push play.

Buffy glanced around the room large room filled with Willow's friends and family. It had come as a bit of a shock when she realized she was the outsider. At first she hadn't been sure how she felt about being on the edge of the party but as she looked around and saw the life her friends had built without her, she suddenly felt the desire to be a part of her friend's lives again. It wasn't that running around with the immortals wasn't a kick, it was, it was just that she hadn't realized how much she missed the scoobies until she had seen them laughing and joking as they passed out packages. They looked good, at peace with themselves in a way she hadn't seen for years. Now if she could just figure out a way to step back into their lives without causing them pain she would take it in a heartbeat. "Who's next?"

Lily smiled as she handed Breena a brightly wrapped box, "I think Breena is next."

Breena smiled, "From you?"

Lily looked slightly embarrassed, "And Gaby and Rose, I couldn't quite get the enchantment to work by myself. Just open it."

Breena grinned widely as she pulled out a sparkling light blue dress. "It's lovely."

"It's charmed to change into whatever clothes you might find yourself needing, anything from a sundress to Jedi robes. I had to get help on having it do more than a few changes before running out of juice."

"Might be a long time before I need Jedi robes but thanks all the same." She smiled brightly at Lily.

Fred turned and looked at George, "Why didn't we get changeable clothes?"

George smiled, "I think because we would look rather horrible in a dress."

Xander snickered, "Because robes look nothing like a dress."

Willow chuckled, "Behave, as for your present, I believe that Gabrielle has something for you."

Fred looked at George slightly concerned, "How do we know this isn't some type of trick."

George shrugged, "We don't really."

Gabrielle grinned as she handed Fred one of the packages from the pile, "Don't worry, your present is completely safe."

Fred took the package from Gabrielle, "Alright." He held it out to George, "You can open it."

George shrugged and opened the package.

Fred looked cautiously inside at the box only to find that a strange blackish goo lined bottom of the box, "Ah Gabrielle what is it?"

"It's a mutagenic alien life form that eats people and takes over their bodies."

The whole room burst out with various things like "What! And you didn't, and where the hell did you get that?"

Gabrielle tried really hard to control her laughing as the room full of people glared at her. "Relax it's just charmed Play-Doh, here let me see it." She reached into the box and pulled out a large hand full of the goo. She looked directly at the goo, as she spoke in a firm voice. "Puppy." The audience was slightly shocked when the goo changed shape into a small black puppy complete with a wagging tail. "See nothing to worry about." She waved her hand over the puppy sculpture. "Return." The puppy melted back into it's formerly shapeless self. She carefully returned the goo to the box that it came from.

Fred and George looked at each other then Gabrielle, "Wicked."

She smiled, "Thanks, I try."

Buffy couldn't help but chuckle, "As long as it's not something we are going to have to slay. So who's next?"

Gabrielle grinned wickedly as she handed Buffy a very long narrow box from the pile of gifts. "You are."

Buffy looked her box over carefully.

"Relax it's from Bodewhin not me."

Buffy relaxed and tore into her package with glee. Her grin turned into a full blown smile as she pulled out a well crafted sword. "Thanks guys."

Bodewhin smiled as she looked over at Violet, "It was a group effort."

Buffy nodded, "Still it's a most impressive blade."

Violet smiled, "It's nearly indestructible as well, though knowing you… well nearly is probably the best we could hope for."

"Hey I haven't broken that many weapons over the years."

Dawn coughed something that sounded suspiciously like "Liar."

Buffy grinned good naturedly as Giles started working on opening his present, she had missed this type of family connection the last few years. The immortals were great but Christmas just wasn't the same without children and presents to spice things up. Besides Adam was a pagan, if left to himself he would just assume pull a beer out of the fridge, make something that passed for a sandwich and watch a game rather than celebrate the death of a fictional character. She and Duncan had tried for many years to convince him that it was more about the celebration than the reason behind it, but he could be a bit stubborn. She was so lost in her own thoughts that she was startled when she finally noticed that the only one left in the room other than her was Xander, everyone else had already finished opening their presents and drifted from the room to put things away or head outside.

Xander smiled, "A penny for your thoughts?"

"Is a penny even worth anything these days?"

He smiled, "Probably more than the random jumble in your head, what's wrong?"

She sighed, "I feel old."

Xander blinked, in some ways he still thought of himself as the goofy kid he was when he first met the slayer. He knew that he had added a few lines and changed a bit from his high school years. Not a great deal in the last several mind but still he looked a little different. It had been nearly twenty years but she still looked nearly the same as the first time he had seen her. "Old, what do you mean old? You look the same as you always have…"

She nodded, "and I shouldn't Xander."

The inkling that had been building these last several years that something wasn't quite right with his Buffy came back in a rush. He had pushed the knowledge that her new world moved faster than his to the back of his mind. Her visits every few months had allowed him to believe that the time discrepancy wasn't static that it somehow was less most of the time. "How long?"

She smiled, "You always were smarter than we gave you credit for. Look don't tell the others, please. I just need a vacation back in our home world… some place with magic and demons to hunt."

"It was the spell wasn't it? We did this when we brought you back didn't we?"

Buffy shrugged, "I'm not sure… It might have happened anyways. Slayers are filled with demonic energy Xan. The creatures I've stopped, all of the magic… the essence spell…" she stopped and stared at Xander, "You haven't changed either."

Xander turned his head slightly away, "Now that's just crazy talk."

"No really, you look the same as you have since the hellmouth closed."

Xander sighed, "Willow explained it once when she had had too much to drink a few years ago. Too much energy that day on Kingman's bluff. It changed things, changed me somehow. The next morning she didn't remember bringing it up, I've never asked for more information, please don't. She has enough guilt from that time in her life. You should spend some time with Giles, he misses you. I don't think running the council is much fun without you."

Faith watched Buffy leave the living room from her spot in the opposite hall, she was fairly sure that she hadn't been seen. She waited a few seconds then stepped into the room. "You still miss her don't you?"

Xander grinned, "It's just not the same without her."

Faith nodded, "Yeah, but did you have to lie to her?"

Xander shook his head slightly, "Which part?"

"The part about Willow getting drunk, you know as well as I do that she hasn't been able to get drunk in ten years."

"Yeah but it sounds better than by the way the dimension that your old best friend has been living in for years causes people to become more magical and mutate in odd ways."

"Oh please, I'm not Buffy, you can't tell me you don't enjoy being slightly more than human."

Xander smirked, "I don't enjoy being slightly more than human."

She rolled her eyes, "Okay you can tell me but I'm not going to believe you."

"So what do we do if we get her back?"

Faith smiled as she drained her wine glass, "Same thing we do every day pinky, try to take over the world."

"Shouldn't that be save the world?"

Faith's face lit up with a smile, "See that's why we need Buffy back, she helps keep us straight on the little details."

"Save the world, take over the world, bit of a difference Faith."

"Maybe so, right now however I have several hours before dinner so I'm going to take advantage of the fact that Logan is visiting and have some wild kinky sex."

Xander shook his head, "Isn't that what you and your new girl have been doing for the last two weeks?"

Faith grinned, "You're point?"

"So where is your new girl anyways?"

"Probably out having a snowball fight with the kids."

"Go have fun with Logan."

Xander had a brief minute of regret as he watched Faith's behind as she sauntered out of the room.

Buffy sat at the window of one of the empty rooms watching the children's snowball fight. It was just her and Willow in the room, so much and so little had changed that she wasn't sure where to start. "Do you think Giles would want me back?"

"I thought you liked running around with Adam?"

Buffy sighed, "I do, I did but I've been dreaming lately."

"Slayer dreams?"

"Don't think so, just my subconscious telling me that I'm missing the fight and missing friends."

"If you really want to come back there isn't anything stopping you. Giles would love the help, he has been feeling his age lately."

"He isn't that old."

"No but ten years of dealing with crappy politics will do that to you."

"I'm sorry I stayed away so long."

Willow shook her head, "You needed the break, hell we all needed the break."

Buffy found her gaze returning to watch the children, she was fairly impressed by the sheer number of snowballs Gabrielle was dodging, "You sure she isn't a slayer?"

"As sure as I can be."

"What are you going to do when she wants to go out demon hunting?"

"Hand her a sword and tell her to have fun."

"You can't be serious, it's not her destiny."

"She might not be a slayer and it might not be her destiny but it's her choice. She isn't going into it blind, hell she knows the risks better than we did when we started. As much as I would love to wrap her in cotton to keep her safe I can't, and I wouldn't if I could."

Buffy shook her head, "Why?"

"Because if I tried to stop her she would still go."

Buffy rested her head against the window frame. "When did life get so complicated?"

Willow smiled, "Well for me it was when this short blonde haired girl came to my high school."

"Brat."

"Yeah maybe, but it's good to have you back."

"Now I just have to get Giles to take me back."

Giles chuckled from his spot by the door, "Somehow I think that will be the easy part."

Buffy blinked in surprise at not having heard the door opening. "How much did you hear?"

He grinned, "Just the part about life getting complicated. I would have to agree that it all started back in Sunnydale, though actually running the council took it a few steps further." He smiled at Buffy, "Of course I would welcome some help."

Buffy swung from her spot on the window seat and marched over and pulled Giles into a hug. "I'm sure we can straighten out your council members in no time."

"Yes quite."

Willow glanced at the two of them, "Go find someplace and have a nice chat. I think I'll go see how the preparations for dinner are going."