TITLE: Twinkle, Twinkle...
SERIES: Ice and Fire (Part 5/12)
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! :-)

"Ghosts?" she repeated, giving Fred an apologetic look for changing the subject. "Are you telling ghost stories? Please share with the class."

Alex looked a little embarrassed. "Not really."

"Surely ghost stories are for Halloween rather than Christmas," Fred commented.

Willow shrugged. "I was a ghost once. I like ghost stories." She gave Alex a beseeching look. "Go on, tell me the house is haunted."

Cordelia had caught Willow's comment and looked over at her husband. "Why not tell them?" She gave him an amused, private smile. "You can't say you don't believe in ghosts," she pointed out. "You live with one most of the time."

Wesley looked up at the reminder. "How is Phantom Dennis? I promised him I'd bring Jeremy over for him to meet and we haven't done it yet."

"Miffed," Alex answered with a grin. "He thinks we should be staying with him, not constantly going away to some other house for Christmas."

"So does this house have a ghost too?" Willow asked, dragging the conversation back to where she wanted it to be.

"Not really a ghost as such," Alex answered. "But there are several stores of people seeing...ah...well, something. Always around Christmas time. My grandmother always insisted she saw her own grandmother when she was a girl." He shrugged. "But it was right about the time the curse was cast, so no-one was sure if she really did or not."

"It's Christmas now," Willow pointed out needlessly. "Even if I am still Jewish. Maybe we'll meet a ghost."

"No, thank you," Fred said firmly. "I don't want to meet a ghost."

"But you like Dennis," Cordelia reminded her friend, feeling obscurely offended on behalf of her permanent roommate.

"Oh, that's different," Fred explained hastily. "We were introduced, all proper like." She shook her head. "I just don't want to meet any dead _strangers_."

"Might be kind of cool," Gunn offered.

"I don't think there _is_ a ghost," Alex repeated patiently. "Not like Dennis, anyway. If there's anything, it's more like...well, apparitions or something."

"Hmm," Giles offered thoughtfully. "It could be that the house somehow attracts spirits, possibly only at this time of year. There doesn't have to be one particular spirit bound to the house like Dennis is in Cordelia and Alex's apartment."

"Isn't he great?" Buffy said proudly. "Still Knowledge-guy."

"Don't call..." Giles began automatically, stopping when he saw the teasing look on Buffy's face.

"Anyway, I don't want to meet any apparitions," Fred said firmly.

Buffy smiled at her. "Me neither," she admitted. "I ordered a supernatural free Christmas."

She cast a look at Spike, who immediately tried to look innocent. Buffy wasn't sure if the fact she'd just caught him adding a shot of something from his hip flask to his coffee counted for or against him.

"I'm not supernatural," he offered helpfully. "Or no more than you, anyway."

"No, you're just dead," Dawn pointed out, helping herself to the coffee cup and taking a mouthful.

"Not _my_ fault," Spike insisted. He regarded his lost coffee for a moment, then shrugged and drank directly from the flask.

Buffy found herself laughing. "Whatever." She turned her head to give Alex a steady look. "Just no ghosts - or apparitions - please."

"I don't have anything..." Alex began.

The lights went out.

"...to do with it," he finished helplessly.

"What just happened?" Fred's voice asked out of the darkness.

"The lights went out," Cordelia pointed out matter-of-factly. "We just need - "

She was cut off by a terrified scream from somewhere in the house.

"No ghosts," Fred whispered, and it sounded like a prayer.

The wails quickly resolved themselves into the cries of a frightened five year-old. "Mommy! Mommy! Mommy!"

"That's Miri!" Susan was on her feet almost before she remembered Jeremy was sleeping in her arms. He startled awake as she rose, heard his sister's screams and immediately started to cry.

"I'll take him," Wesley said immediately. He tried to collect up his son safely in the dark and managed to jab the poor boy in the side with one hand. Jeremy immediately started to cry all the harder.

"Fiat Lux!" Hazel's voice said suddenly and the darkness was gone, replaced by the cool blue radiance of the ball of light she had conjured in the air. It danced about her head and threw strange shadows around the room.

Wesley took Jeremy from his mother and started trying to calm the screaming child. The instant she had handed him over, Susan was already heading for the door and the sound of Miri crying.

Hazel hurried over to join her, the light moving with her as she crossed the room. "I'll come with you," she told Susan. "That way you'll have some light. Will and Tara can make more for in here."

The two women left the room, taking the light with them. After a moment's darkness. Tara's voice spoke softly and a second ball of light appeared, this one a soft orange. It was quickly joined by a green sphere, the colour a little harder, a little sharper, softening towards gold in the centre.

It made for interesting colours and shadows, but it was more than enough to see by. Jeremy, entranced by the lights, gave a final hiccup and stopped crying. Knowing a good thing when he saw one, Wesley took his son over to sit by Willow, who obligingly made a second, fairy- sized wisp of light and made it dance in front of Jeremy's fascinated gaze.

Seeing Willow was busy, Cordelia immediately asked Tara to come with her to find a supply of candles.

"Top of the kitchen cupboard by the sink," Alex called after her helpfully.

Cordelia's voice drifted back into the room. "I _know_ that."

A large amount of clattering and banging sounded at a distance that made Alex wonder about her certainty, but he was far too wise to make any further comments.

Susan and Hazel returned shortly after, Susan carrying a weeping Miri. She sat back down on the couch, pulled her daughter onto her lap and tried to soothe Miri enough to get some sense out of her.

It took a long few minutes, in which no-one else quite dared to say anything in case they set the little girl off into hysterics again, but Susan finally got her calm again to ask a few questions.

"What happened, Kitten?"

Miri looked up at her mother and started to cry again. "I didn't mean it," she wept. "I didn't mean it."

Susan rubbed her back and waited patiently for the tears to stop. "Miri honey, Mommy's not mad. Tell me what happened, lovey."

"I just wanted to make the pretty lights twinkle," Miri declared, looking up at her mother with a lip that clearly trembled, even in the witchlight that currently illuminated the room.

"What lights, Miri?" Wesley asked gently.

"On the tree," Miri explained. "I wanted them to twinkle like at Gran and Grandad's house."

"We have lights that blink on and off," Buffy said softly.

"We don't," Alex answered. "We decided to get the plain ones."

Susan wasn't sure if she wanted to know the answer to her next question. "How did you make the lights twinkle?"

"I found the plug in the wall, like my bed light at home," Miri admitted in a small voice. "I pulled it out and pushed it in again." There was a pause. "Lots of times," she finished quietly.

Susan covered up her need to laugh by hugging her daughter. "Oh, Miri," she said softly. "How many times have you been told _not_ to touch the plugs?"

"It was pretty," Miri said defensively. "They went all twinkly."

"And then what happened?" Wesley asked her calmly.

Miri's lip trembled again. "It went all dark and I was scared."

"It's okay now, honey," Susan whispered into her hair. She put a finger under Miri's chin and lifted her head. "See, Aunty Hazel made light for you. So did Aunty Willow and Aunty Tara. Lots of pretty coloured lights for you."

"We can even make them twinkle for you," Willow offered. She whispered a few words and the globe of green fire began to sparkle.

Miri chuckled in delight, which assured Susan that the required scolding was no longer going to send her much-too-curious daughter back into hysterics.

Sure enough, Miriam was suitably chastised but no longer tearful, and Susan hoped they wouldn't be getting a repeat performance any time soon. Preferably not ever as electricity straight from the main supply wasn't good for anyone, especially a child.

Cordelia and Tara finally returned carrying a large box of candles and a try full of items suitable to put the candles in. There was a variety of real candlesticks and a selection of more eclectic holders, clearly improvised.

"What took you so long?" Alex asked. "I told you where the candles were."

"I _knew_ where the candles were," Cordelia told him. "It was finding enough things to put the candles in that took the time." She gave him a patently false sweet look. "I thought you'd prefer it if the house didn't burn down because of a fallen candle."

She glanced around the room, seeing Miri safely ensconced on Susan's knee. "What happened anyway?"

"Miri blew the fuses I'd say," Wesley offered apologetically.

"How? That's quite a feat for a five year old kid."

"She unplugged and replugged the Christmas tree lights," Alex explained. "Lots of times."

"Yuck. The fuse box is outside and it's snowing again."

There was a yelp from Spike and he turned to look daggers at Dawn, who had just poked him in the ribs. A moment later he sighed and looked down again. "I guess I could go out and fix it," he conceded grumpily.

Cordelia pursed her lips thoughtfully, then she shrugged. "Nah, forget it. We can use the candles. It's kind of suitable for Christmas anyway. We'll fix the fuses in the morning."

"If I can have a candle or two, I think it's time I put the children to bed." Susan helped Miri to her feet and came to claim a candle from Cordelia. She carefully chose a real candlestick from the tray Tara carried, saying with a smile that she didn't want any more Miri- created disasters. Her daughter started to argue and clearly thought better of it.

The lit candle cast a completely different kind of glow from the created witchlight, making a pool of light that bathed Susan and Miri, turning the girl's blond hair to gold fire. Susan pushed her daughter towards the door. "Come on, honey. It's bed time."

Brianna promptly embarrassed herself by yawning. "Me too, I think," she admitted. "It was a long drive up here."

As if that first one had started a chain reaction, yawns soon spread across the room. Only Spike remained immune, but since he didn't need to breathe it couldn't really be counted as a victory.

And when everyone else headed off to their assigned bedrooms, wishing each other cheerful goodnights and carrying candles and matches, he agreeably took the basement.

After all, he wasn't planning on staying there all night.

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