TITLE: Season's Greetings
SERIES: Ice and Fire (Part 2/12)
AUTHOR: Kerry Blackwell
DISCLAIMER: All things Buffy belong to Joss Whedon, UPN, the WB, FOX and Mutant Enemy and 20th Century Fox Film Corporation. I own only my genius (yeah, right!)
FEEDBACK: Well, I'm certainly not going to complain! :-)

The front door swung open just as Giles brought the car to a halt. Cordelia Chase-Williams came hurrying down the steps, her husband a couple of paces behind her.

"Buffy! Giles! You made it."

Buffy was still staring at the house in front of her, too stunned to answer. She could hear Cordy's voice; coming from memory rather than from the woman in front of her. Cordy had rung Buffy to arrange details for the visit and provide directions on how to get to the house.

_We're staying at Alex's parents' holiday cottage. He inherited it when they died, but we haven't had a chance to spend Christmas there before. Do come and join us, Buffy. Please. It's my turn to play hostess._

Despite her love of the big family Christmases held each year in her own home, Buffy had agreed. Cordelia, and later Cordelia and Alex, had spent many a Christmas with the Giles household. She was right; it _was_ her turn to play the hostess. All the same, when Cordy had insisted the entire extended clan was invited, Buffy had wondered how they were all going to fit.

Now she knew.

Whatever Cordy might like to call it, the house in front of Buffy was _not_ a cottage. It was more like a mansion; three stories, gabled rooftops, little towers with inviting looking attic rooms. From the outside Buffy couldn't really tell how big it was, but it made her and Giles' home look small. She was guessing a good eight or ten bedrooms and probably appropriately matching numbers of bathrooms, living rooms and quite possibly servant's quarters.

"You said 'cottage', Cordy," she managed to squeak as she was enveloped in a bear hug.

Cordelia let her go and turned back to look at the house. "Oh," she said, sounding a little embarrassed. "That's what Alex's mother always called it and I guess I picked up the habit from her."

Alex Williams, a few paces away and shaking hands with Giles, laughed at the look on his wife's face. "That's my girl," he said with a grin. "Putting her foot in it again."

Cordelia gave him a patent glare, to which he remained calmly impervious. He smiled at Buffy instead. "Since Cordy has invited everybody she considers family, it's a good thing the place is the size it is. Otherwise there wouldn't be enough room."

"We still would have been squashing up if Xander and Anya and all their mob had come," Cordelia admitted.

"With Peter and Jane just back from Saudi Arabia, I think they decided they wanted their own immediate family for Christmas this year," Giles said.

Alex nodded. "That's what Xander told me when I spoke to him. He was sorry they couldn't make it, but I assure him we all understood."

Any answer Giles might have made to that was smothered by a hug from Cordelia. Alex grinned and took his turn to hug Buffy just a little less enthusiastically than his wife had done. She grinned as they stepped apart, watching as Giles tried to disentangle himself.

Sometimes, if she stopped and remembered the Cordelia she had first met in the corridor at SHS, it was hard to reconcile that girl with this warm, friendly and loving woman. They'd had some tough times, Buffy and Cordelia, both separately and together, but somehow they'd built a strong friendship out of it. Something that, back in their High School days, neither would have believed could ever exist. In those early years after Angel had moved to Los Angeles, the old Sunnydale gang and the new Angel Investigations team had both decided they now had very little in common and each had expected to go their separate ways.

A little more time and maturity had proved they shared the most important things; matching goals, shared experiences, friendship and lives they couldn't share with most people. So they'd started sharing with each other instead; commiserating over failures and sorrows, celebrating each other's triumphs and joys.

_And here we are,_ Buffy reflected. _Who would have guessed?_

"Come on, Cordelia." Alex came to Giles' rescue and gathered his wife into his arms. "Let's get inside before we all freeze to death."

She leaned up to kiss him briefly on the cheek before turning back to her guests. "Come in," she agreed. "The LA folks are already here and Wesley and Susan and the kids arrived about half an hour ago. Willow called just before to say they're almost here and they've got Joy with them. I don't know about Dawn, but she promised she'd be here."

"We haven't heard from her much lately ourselves," Giles told her as he slipped an arm around Buffy and they followed their hosts up the front steps. "She said she's been busy with the new book."

"Which shouldn't stop her from calling her favourite big sister now and then," Buffy grumbled good-naturedly.

Cordelia glanced back over her shoulder. "You're her _only_ big sister," she pointed out.

"All the more reason to call," Buffy insisted as she stepped inside and was immediately greeted by the small tornado that was her granddaughter. She swept Miri into her arms and dropped a kiss on the little girl's forehead.

"How are you, lovely?"

"I'm big!" Miri declared cheerfully.

Buffy resettled the child into a more comfortable position on her hip and nodded. "So you are, sweetie. Soon you'll be too big for me to pick up."

"Oh." Miri's face fell. "Can I stay small then, Gran?"

Buffy laughed. "I'm afraid you don't have any choice, kitten. But Granddad's big and strong, he'll be able to keep on picking you up." She set the five year-old back on the floor. "Why don't you go and say hello to him?"

Enchanted by the idea, the whirlwind descended on her next target. In moments, Giles found himself covered in grandchildren. Miri was clinging to one arm and her little brother, Jeremy, was tugging at Giles' trousers. Almost two now, Jeremy was walking, but his coordination still left a little to be desired and he was happy to have 'Gandad' there to lean on.

Buffy was still grinning at this scene of overwhelming domestic bliss when Wesley came hurrying out into the hallway.

"Is Jeremy here? He got away when my back was turned."

"He made a beeline for your father," Buffy assured her worried looking son.

Wesley turned, seeing her for the first time and grinned. "Mom! You made it."

Buffy made a show of pouting. "That's what Cordy said. What, did everyone think we were going to get lost or something?"

"Only if you were driving," another voice commented wickedly from the doorway behind Wesley.

"Thank you, Brianna." Buffy used her best I'm-your-mother-and- don't-mess-with-me voice, but it didn't have the effect it had had when Bree was seven.

Her daughter laughed, and Buffy soon found herself in a three-way hug. Her arms weren't quite long enough to encompass both of the twins at the same time but her children quite made up for it, wrapping her up in their hug to the point she couldn't be sure if the outside world was still there or not.

She got two equally breathless whispers of "Merry Christmas, Mom" brushed across her cheeks and for a second it could have been twenty five years earlier and her toddlers she was cradling in her arms.

Until she stepped back and could see their respective spouses standing in the doorway behind them, shattering the illusion. She laughed, delighted all over again by the blessings life had given her, and went to indulge in more hugs and kisses.

"Merry Christmas, Susan. Merry Christmas, Angel."

Behind her, she heard the twins joining the collection of people who had descended on Giles.

"Hey! Enough with the hallway hugging!" Cordelia's voice cut across the greetings and laughter with the same power it had always wielded. As her guests all turned to look at her, she grinned. "We do have a whole house, you know. Get outta my hallway."

Alex chuckled. "Life's easier when we do what she says."

"Don't we know it," a new voice proclaimed from somewhere inside the living room and Buffy immediately pounced on its owner.

"Gunn! I forgot Cordy said the 'LA folks' were here. Where's Fred?"

"Over here." She was sitting in an old-fashioned armchair, grinning at Buffy. Perhaps Giles had more in common with Fred than Buffy did, but they had become good friends despite their differences over the years. The fact she was Wesley's godmother and took that duty very seriously also meant they frequently spoke on the phone, even when they didn't see each other particularly often.

The Sunnydale and Los Angeles groups were simply subsets of one big family now and Buffy wouldn't give up a single one of them. She might miss her rambling, friendly house in Sunnydale, but she was suddenly glad they were here. She looked up to see Rupert watching her, his expression clearly showing he knew exactly what she was thinking. She gave him a rueful smile. If she had to, she'd let him say "I told you so" later.

Miri came racing in from the hallway to tug on Cordelia's skirt. "Car, Aunty Cordy. There's a car coming."

"That's probably Willow and Tara," Cordelia told her cheerfully. "Your Aunty Joy is coming with them, too. Shall we go and see?"

Miri nodded vigourously. "An' Gran and Grandad," she insisted firmly.

Cordy grinned at Buffy and Giles. "Come on then, Gran and Granddad. We're going to answer the door."

Giles obediently handed Jeremy over to his mother, Buffy gave Fred an apologetic look and they both stood up. When Cordelia used that voice, you did as you were told. Especially when you were in her house.

The car was pulling up behind Buffy and Giles' vehicle as the welcoming party stepped onto the porch. Miri would have gone dancing down the steps into the still falling snow if Buffy hadn't grabbed her shoulders to hold her in place. Giles smiled at his wife and swept the little girl into his arms before she could think to protest. Instantly side-tracked, she settled there happily and waved cheerfully as the car disgorged first Willow, then Hazel, followed by Tara and finally Joy.

The four women made a dash for the cover of the porch, leaving bags and parcels behind in the car in the hope the weather might improve enough for them to collect them later. Only Joy was carrying something, but she was so hunched up to protect it and herself from the snow that it was impossible to see what it was.

Everyone stumbled inside in a large group, exchanging hugs and greetings. Once safely inside the warmth of the hallway, Miri looked down at her aunt from the high vantage point of her grandfather's arms.

"What dat, Aunty Joy?"

"Miriam, you know you can talk properly," Giles admonished. "You're grown up and almost ready to go to school. Don't pretend you can't."

Miri pulled what had to be an anatomically dangerous face, but she responded to the reprimand.

"What are you carrying, Aunty Joy?" she asked in carefully deliberate tones and then looked up and gave Giles a smug little smile that he was certain she could only have inherited from her grandmother. And since he'd never been fortunate enough to meet Susan's mother, who had died when her daughter was twelve, there was only one candidate in the running for the honour of bestowing that personality quirk on Miri.

Joy started laughing. "It's a cake," she said between giggles. She straightened up and gave Hazel a thankful nod when her friend helped her out of her coat. "Aunt Anya gave it to me to bring. She said that since they couldn't come this year, she wanted to send something along." She chuckled again. "I think she's been watching too many holiday cooking shows and kind of got her religions mixed up."

She ceremoniously handed to cake to Cordelia. "Here you are."

Cordy looked down in amazement at Anya's interpretation of a traditional Christmas cake. It had the usual marzipan and white icing covering, but things deviated radically from there. It was decorated with a large Star of David in raised blue icing and sitting in the middle like a Buddha surrounded by well, by a Star of David actually was a large Santa Claus doll that was dripping loose tinsel all over the cake.

For once, even Cordelia was at a loss for words.

Seeing the look on her face, Joy laughed some more. "She was so proud of it I didn't have the heart to tell her she'd gotten things a little mixed up." She shrugged. "Besides, it wouldn't be an Aunt Anya Christmas without her getting _something_ wrong."

"She's been human for nearly forty years," Buffy pointed out mildly. "You'd think she might have managed to get it worked out by now."

Tara chuckled. "I don't think she ever will completely. Forty, even fifty or sixty years, is never quite going to compare with being a demon for a millennium."

"And she wouldn't be Anya if she understood everything," Giles added, remembering some of her more memorable mistakes.

"At least she doesn't still talk about sex at the drop of a hat," Willow said in Anya's defence.

"No," Hazel agreed. "It takes at least two hats to fall now."

"Sometimes she even makes it to three," Joy agreed.

"Pretty cake," Miri said suddenly. She gave the grownups a puzzled look. "Pretty hats? There are no hats."

A swift flurry of embarrassed adult glances ensued. Willow quickly pulled the knitted cap off her hair and put it on Miri's head instead, pulling the brim down over the child's eyes.

"Only this one," she said firmly. "And now you've got it."

Miri pushed the wool back up so she could see and grinned. "Can I keep it, Aunty Willow?"

"No, you can not," Giles said firmly, before Willow could offer to give it away.

"But you can wear it for a while," Tara suggested instead.

"How long?" Miri demanded immediately.

"Ah…" Tara floundered and looked around for help.

"Until your Aunty Dawn gets here," Giles decided.

Willow looked over at him, the hat momentarily forgotten. "Dawn's not here yet? It's going to be dark out any moment."

"Nope, Dawn's not here yet," Buffy answered. "Trust my little sister to be late."

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