[Reviews - 17]
-
Table of Contents [Report This]
Microsoft Word Chapter or Story | ePub eBook Chapter or Story | Printer Chapter or Story

Has been viewed 3348 times

- Text Size +




Author's Chapter Notes:
Thanks for the reviews...hopefully it will inspire me to finish the story this year...lol...well here's the next chapter...hope ya'll enjoy...
“How about this one?”

“No. It’s too…brown.”

Buffy put the turkey down and sighed. Every turkey she had pulled out had either been too dark, too white, too small, too big, too juicy looking, or too much like his childhood pet turkey Billy.

“Spike, if you’re going to complain about every one that I pick out then why don’t you come over here and pick one out yourself?” Buffy was becoming slightly irritated. It was already 12:00 p.m. on Christmas Eve and they were still in the grocery store.

Spike was lounging against their buggy, which was filled to the top with everything one could possibly want to eat. He looked over at her rubbing her temples. He knew she was getting frustrated with him. “Okay okay, I’m sorry. Just grab one.”

Buffy looked back at the turkeys, picked one up, and carried it to the buggy.

“You had to pick that one?”

She glared at him.

“Cause it’s the most beautiful turkey I’ve ever seen,” he recovered. Her look softened as she shook her head and smiled.

“So what’s next?” She looked down at the mile long list in her hands.

“Well I think we have everything except the yams.”

He grimaced.

“Yams? Must we have yams?”

Buffy looked almost shocked.

“Of course we must have yams. You can’t have turkey and dressing and not have yams.”

“Whatever you say, pet.”

They continued walking, both thinking how strange all of this was. Here they were, slayer and vampire, walking through a grocery store shopping for food for their Christmas dinner. It had taken a while to convince him to even come on this little shopping trip.
-----------------------

“No, see I thought I would just stay here and watch the parade on TV.”

“What? I don’t think so mister. This whole thing was your idea. So you’re coming.” Buffy grabbed his arm and pulled him off the couch.

“But I don’t wanna,” he wined.

She put her hands on her hips and he poked his bottom lip out.

“Pwease don’t make me.”

Buffy tried not to smile as she dragged him toward the door.

“Willow and Dawn went present shopping. Plus they’re picking up decorations. I’m not going to the grocery store alone.” They paused at the door.

“Can’t you take Anya or Xander?”

“They went to find a tree.”

“Giles?”

“Said he had something important to take care of this morning.”

Spike sighed. “But what about the sun? I can’t go out in it.”

Buffy opened the door.

“It’s overcast.”

“But I…”

She pushed him out the door.

“Well can I at least drive?”

“No.”
-------------------------------

“If I were a yam, where would I be?”

“If I were a yam I would kill myself.”

“Not helping Spike.”

He smiled to himself.

“Aha!” Buffy picked up the can. “Found you.” She looked victorious as she threw the can into the over crowded buggy. “Well I think that’s everything.”

“Good.” She smiled at him.

“You know Spike, for such a big bad vampire you sure seem a little wimpy when it comes to shopping.”

“What can I say, luv? Not a big fan of it.”

They walked to the register and after they had checked out, and Spike had purposely flirted with the cashier, they returned to the car. Buffy silently fumed.

They loaded the groceries, and Spike could sense Buffy was pissed. He assumed it was because of his flirting. He hadn’t done it on purpose. Oh who was he kidding? Of course he had done it on purpose. He had wanted her to be jealous. Looks like it worked. Either that or she was just mad at him for doing it right in front of her. Probably the latter. When they got back in the car he broke the silence.

“So where to now?”

She didn’t answer.

“Earth to Buffy.”

She glanced over at him.

“What?” She sounded angry.

“I just asked where we were going.”

“Home.”

He rolled his eyes.

“Are you mad at me?”

“Mad? Why would I be mad?” It sounded a bit sarcastic.

“Look I’m sorry if…”

“If what? You’re sorry if what, you hurt my feelings?”

“I didn’t…”

“Mean to? Save it.”

“Look,” he said, “I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings. I get that you’re jealous but…”

“Jealous? Please, don’t flatter yourself.”

“I wasn’t…you know what? It doesn’t matter. It’s over.”

She wasn’t quite sure what he meant. He reached over and touched her shoulder.

“Look I hate it when you’re mad at me. And this is Christmas. Can we put the past behind us? At least for the next little while?”

Buffy bit her lip and looked at him.

“I’m sorry I’m being a bitch. I don’t know what got into me. You’re right. Let’s just forget about it. We’ll go home and cook the best dinner anyone has ever had.”

“Hey now, I never said anything about cooking.”

She smiled as he started the car and drove toward home.
-------------------

“Okay, now we just need to put it in the oven.”

Buffy glanced behind her at Spike who was holding up the box of stuffing mix, apparently reading something off of the back of it.

“Bird in oven. Can do.” Buffy picked up the pan which now contained a freshly stuffed turkey.
------------------------

“I am not sticking my hand up the bird’s ass,” Spike declared crossing his arms over his chest.

“Why not? It’s dead.”

“Then you do it.”

Buffy looked down at the turkey and then over at the box of stuffing. It couldn’t be that hard. She picked up the box and began tearing it open.

“Don’t forget to wash the turkey.”

Buffy made a face as she set down the box, picked up the turkey by its legs and carried it over to the sink.

“And don’t forget you have to preheat the oven. Oh and…”

“Why don’t you stop dictating and do something yourself,” Buffy said looking over her shoulder.

Spike made a face.

“I don’t do cooking pet.” She almost threw the turkey down as she turned and started toward him.

“No. What you’re not going to do is sit here and not do anything. So get off of your lazy ass and help me fix dinner.” She spun on her heels and headed back to the sink.

“Whoever heard of Christmas Eve dinner anyway? Isn’t it Christmas night when we’re supposed to do all of this madness?” Spike grabbed a potato off of the counter and tossed it in the air.

“We do both. That’s why we got so much stuff at the grocery store. We’ll have some tonight and some tomorrow.”

“And when do we do presents?”

“Tomorrow night. We used to open them in the mornings, but since Dawn and I have gotten older, we started doing it on Christmas night.”

“So we have to wait until tomorrow night?” He didn’t sound too happy about that.

“Yes. It’s tradition.”

“Well it’s a stupid tradition.”

She was about to respond when something was heard from the living room. A crash kind of something. Followed by a cursing kind of something. Buffy turned off the sink and wiped off her hands. She and Spike, who sat down his potato, followed the sound.

“What’s going on in here?”

Standing in the middle of the room, and looking none too happy, was Giles. Standing beside Giles was a slightly amused Dawn. Anya appeared to be struggling with the tree. Xander was nowhere to be seen.

“A little help here.” It was a muffled sound coming from behind the tree. A muffled Xander sound.

Dawn’s laughter subsided as she moved to help Anya. Buffy crossed her arms and leaned against the door frame with a smile on her face.

“Having some trouble, guys?”

Anya turned around and scoffed in Buffy’s direction. After a moment Dawn and Anya managed to get the tree into its stand and Xander crawled out from behind it.

“Are you okay?” Anya asked patting Xander. She looked around. “I mean, not that I’m very concerned.” She stepped back and put quite a bit of space between them.

“Yeah, you know me.” He stood and held his arms up. “I’m made of steel.”

Giles still didn’t look too happy. “Bloody children can’t even properly put up a Christmas tree.”

“Oh cheer up G-man. It’s Christmas Eve.”

He looked over at Xander.

“Yeah stop being such a Scrooge,” came Willow’s voice from the stairs.
------------------------

“Stop being such a Scrooge Giles.”

“I am not being a ‘Scrooge’ as you call it. I am being sensible.”

Buffy stopped her current wrapping project and looked up at him.

“You call walking around the house complaining about how this whole thing is stupid, sensible?”

“Well it is stupid. You are endangering yourselves. We should be looking into this.” He was beginning to get very frustrated with her. Why couldn’t she see how blind she was being?

Buffy climbed off of the bed and took a step towards him.

“There’s nothing to look into. And we are not endangering ourselves. Why can’t you just accept that we are finally going to get a break?”

“Because things like this,” he said waving his hand in the air, “do not happen everyday. We do not just get ‘breaks’. There’s something else going on here.”

“What’s going on here is that we are having a nice Christmas.” She started to walk back to her wrapping. “For once.”

“So you’re telling me that you think nothing is wrong here? That there are absolutely no consequences to this little vacation?”

“Well I…”

“Cause let me tell you something Buffy; you are putting a lot of lives at stake here. We don’t know if that’s really even Spike. He could be under the First’s control.”

“He’s not.”

“How can you be so sure? The last time it happened, he wasn’t even sure himself. I mean the First could have all of the potentials right now. Have you even bothered to check on that? Or have you been to busy shopping?”

Buffy walked back to where he was standing. She was starting to get very pissed.

“What kind of slayer do you think I am? Huh? You really think I’m that stupid? That I would just go into this blind and not ask questions.” Buffy wished she had something to hit right about now. “Of course I called.”

Giles seemed to calm a little.

“I didn’t say that you were stupid Buffy. I simply think you are trying a little too hard to make this all real when we both know it can’t be.”

“Why can’t you just let me be happy? Just for a few days.” She sat down on the edge of the bed.

“Because these few days could be the deciding days in this battle. And I for one do not want to end up dead.”

She looked up at him.

“We won’t. Just trust me. I know what I’m doing.”

“Well I hope so.”
--------------------------

“I’ve asked you to please stop calling me that. And for the last time, I am not a Scrooge.”

“It’s cause he’s English,” Buffy said.

“Hey.” It was Spike’s turn to speak up. “I’ll have you know we Englishmen are very spirited.”

Giles snorted.

Buffy smiled and shook her head turning to walk back to the kitchen. She reached behind her and grabbed Spike’s arm.

“C’mon Mr. Festive, we’ve got a dinner to make.”
----------------------------

“It’s not hot.”

“What?” Spike asked putting down the box.

“The oven. It’s not hot.” Buffy stood up.

Spike frowned.

“You did preheat it right?”

“Uhh…”

“Slayer!”

“Well I’m sorry.” She threw her hands down in frustration. “I’m not a cook.”

He walked up and reached around her to turn the knob.

“It doesn’t take a master chef to preheat an oven luv.”

His breath on her ear made her involuntarily shiver. ‘Not a good thing Buffy,’ her mind was saying. But before she could argue with herself about the issue he had stepped away from her. She really needed to get a grip. This was Spike for God’s sake. The same Spike who had tried to kill her. And also the same Spike who had gotten her this Christmas to begin with. The same Spike who went shopping with her and was cooking with her and…yeah…she was in trouble.





You must login (register) to review.