Christmas of 1998 started out as Xander's best Christmas ever, the first one spent without fear of drunken family members driving him to camp outside to avoid them. This year he had four different places to spend the Christmas vacation alternating between. Jesse's of course, with his parents who didn't drink and treated him like family anyway. Cordelia's, with her parents who wanted to get to know the young man their daughter had fallen in love with. Diana and Faith's where he and Faith could countdown the days until their daughter's birth. Yeah, that was still a weird situation both Cordelia's and Jesse's family were working on understanding and accepting and of course, the house Mason and Champ had made a home for him. For the first time in his life, Xander Harris felt like he had a home of his own and people who really cared about him.
The only bummer about the Christmas vacation was no Willow sneaking over to watch Charlie Brown's Christmas, something she'd always loved.
"Up until we were about ten I'd do the Snoopy Dance because it made her laugh." Xander told the others when they gathered. "Then I decided I was too grown up of course, to do it anymore, it was a dance for kids. She'd pout and say, I had to, it was tradition and I'd insist it was for babies. If she was here, we'd be arguing about it again. But she's not here and never will be again, so I thought I'd do it this once, in honor of her memory."
"I've heard of it, but I've never seen." Faith commented. "The show or the dance."
"I haven't seen the show since I was a kid myself." Cordelia admitted. "And I never did the dance, even when I was a kid. But I did say we can help you guys remember her and this is one way you can do that. Okay, Doofus, show us how to do the Snoopy Dance!" Cordelia decided. "As long as no one outside this room ever finds out I did it too." She mocked glared at each of them, knowing they wouldn't say anything anyway, this was the equivalent of a memorial for Willow and private.
'I must say, I'm interested in seeing this dance as well.' Ceridian told Jesse. 'Centaurs don't dance, but the Amazons certainly do, as we've seen on the show.'
'You're taking being a fictional character made sort of real in my head pretty well.' Jesse answered. 'I don't think I could handle it half as well.'
'Two reasons.' Ceridian answered. 'Your friends are taking it seriously and helping you cope with it, which helps me and because this character I'm based on was known for his wisdom and strength. Both are factors that are making this easier, for both of us. Also, I think, In time I'll ended up blended with you, one being.'
"I'm just getting use to having you in my head, talking to me.' Jesse half protested.
'Think of me like an imaginary friend, Jesse. A young one has such a friend because they fill a void in their lives. Eventually that void gets filled and the imaginary friend is no longer needed. Once you know what I know, you won't need me anymore. Such is life, a child becomes an adult, a student becomes a teacher. Each carries with them the wisdom of those that came before them and passes it on to the next generation.'
'Does that mean you stayed because I wanted you to stay? Or does it mean you're not actually real?'
'I'm real, as real as I can be and I'm here because you needed me to stay. And I will, until I'm no longer needed.'
Unknown to the teenagers who were enjoying their Christmas and remembering their lost friend, one of their classmates was still a prisoner of her insane mother. Amy endured her Christmas locked in her mother's body as her increasingly unhinged mother lived her life in her body. But the knowledge of that baby that might or might not be a threat to her was eating at Catherine's already extremely loose hold on sanity. That Faith and the others had been kept out of school prior to the Christmas break because of the investigation and arrest of a number of corrupt humans in Sunnydale only increased her vitriol toward the baby. Not that either of them were aware of the connection the four teens had to the investigation as December had pretty much been a wash for all the students when the Vice Principal and several teachers and School Board members had all been arrested in the first week of December and parents had been advised to keep their kids at home until the situation was resolved.
As the time out of class stretched and the date of the baby's birth drew closer, Catherine grew more unstable, raging around her home as Amy took to hiding in the basement for fear of her mother.
"Magic can't find her, Tony Harris failed to kill her." Catherine raged. "And I'm down to just a couple of weeks until that baby's born and no idea how soon it could be a threat to me. Well, if Magic can't hurt her from a distance then that leaves attacking her in person. She may be a Slayer, but she's a pregnant Slayer and I should be able to kill her with Magic before she could ever get close to me to stop me."
Decision made, Catherine decided now was as good a time as any to attack Faith directly and headed to the address she'd found her listed at.
Maybe it's because she's as crazy as Drusilla that she failed to understand just how monumentally stupid it is to attack a mother who actually loves her child, with the intent of killing the child, let alone a girl surrounded by people who love them both.