AUTHOR: Goddess Isa
EMAIL: [email protected]
SUMMARY: Buffy's daughter is missing...that's about it
DISTRIBUTION: Sandee, of course - My site - http://planetslaythis.homestead.com - Crystal and Butterfly if they want it - A Soul's Redemption - Anyone else - sure, just email me & lmk where it's going - I like seeing my name in print =)
FEEDBACK: Please, I'd hate to have to Slay for it. =P
RATING: TV-PG
DISCLAIMER: With the exception of Natalia and Cristal, Joss owns all. Joss is cruel. The song is by 98Degrees, don't know who owns it.
//I'm dreaming tonight
Of a place I love
Even more than I usually do
And although I know
It's a long way back
I promise you
I'll be home for Christmas
You can count on me
Please have snow
And mistletoe
And presents under the tree
Christmas Eve will find me
Where the love light gleams
I'll be home for Christmas
If only in my dreams\\
Natalia Faith Daly drove through the rainstorm before finally saying "Screw it," and pulling over. The downpour covered her car and she put her forehead on the steering will, praying to God for it to stop. When that didn't work, she grasped the pentagram around her neck and began praying to the Goddesses. When the rain kept on, she bared her fangs. "I'll kill someone if I have to," she said to no one in particular. "But I have to get home and it has to be tonight."
*****
"Where is she?" Buffy Daly asked her husband nervously. "She should've been home hours ago."
"Honey, she called from Vegas and said she was fine." Angel said sensibly. "You know Cristal's down there for the holidays, maybe she wanted to spend some time with her. They never see each other anymore."
Buffy turned to her best friend. "Did Cristal mention seeing Natalia?"
Willow shook her head. "All she said was that she'd be home in January. She doesn't call me, she enjoys the little bit of freedom."
"You!" Buffy pointed at Xander. "You let your eighteen year old daughter go to a strange city for a whole month! How insane are you?"
"Buffy, you let *your* eighteen year old daughter drive across the country at the busiest time of the year through a snowstorm. You tell me who's insane."
"Before I have you all committed for insanity, could we calm down?" Giles asked. "Buffy, why don't you just call Natalia's cell phone?"
"The battery is down, I already tried." she made a face at Angel.
"What did I do?"
"I told you to buy her one of those emergency battery packs."
"I--"
"God, enough!" Cordelia yelled. "You're making me glad I never became a mother."
"It wasn't by choice." Oz whispered to her. "And I'm still open to the whole adoption thing, you know that."
She glared at him. "I told you fifteen years ago when we got married and I'm telling you now. If I ever raise a child, it will be my own."
"That girl is just full of Christmas spirit." Amy remarked.
"You should see Spike at home." Anya said. "He takes down every decoration I put up and yesterday, I saw him eating the cranberries off the tree."
He shrugged. "I was hungry and not in the mood for blood. So sue me."
"Don't tempt me," Xander muttered.
"Oooh, I'm afraid of the big, bad lawyer now." Spike joked. "You're gonna come and smack me with your gavel."
"I don't have a gavel, you nimrod. Only the judge has one. And I wouldn't smack you with it if I did have one. I'd stake you."
Spike was going to say something else when Buffy burst into tears, convinced something terrible was happening to her only child.
*****
The 'Welcome To Sunnydale' sign was actually in tact when Natalia drove over state lines. She smiled and turned her wipers on again to wipe away the drizzle that was covering her home town. She couldn't believe the difference in the weather or the temperature. She'd tossed her coat and sweater into the backseat, now driving just in her halter dress.
Her mother's old 98Degrees Christmas tape played on as she drove through the tiny town, aiming for her parent's house, the same one her mother had lived in since she was sixteen. She passed the nursing home where her grandmother Joyce now lived and wondered for only a minute if she should stop.
"No," she said aloud. "Not tonight."
It wasn't that she didn't love her grandmother - she did - but she was a bullhead and had never been to any family gatherings or one of Natalia's eighteen birthday parties. She detested Angel and would never accept him as a part of her life. She also blamed him for Buffy not being able to have another baby, though everyone knew it was fate that kept them from having the houseful of kids they'd always wanted and nothing else.
Natalia turned onto Revello Drive and smiled when she saw the cars in front of her house. Her Godparents, Willow and Xander, her grandfather Giles, and hopefully his wife Olivia, because she was alot of fun, Spike and Anya, Amy, Cordelia and Oz. She was slightly disappointed that she didn't see a motorcycle outside though. Buffy's friend from high school, Pike, had a wonderful nineteen year old son named Drake, and Natalia had a mad crush on him.
"Natalia!" Buffy yelled when she entered the house. She threw her into a hug so tight she was having trouble breathing.
"Mom, Mom, oxygen." she muttered. Buffy backed off a bit but still held her.
"I was so worried. Where were you?"
"Caught in what had to be the Rainstorm of this Millennium."
"We're just glad you're all right," Giles said.
"Me too." Natalia went around and hugged everyone, then turned back to her parents. "Okay, I'm home, it's Christmas, where are my gifts?!"