Disclaimer: I don't own Angel, Giles or any of the characters from either show. I am just taking them off the shelf, dusting them off, and letting them play with some of the people from my shelf. I promise to put everything back where I found it when I am done.

Author's Note: If you haven't read my other story Yellow you will have to in order to understand what is going on. Thanks to MeriBeth who is my beta for this story. Please read English Demons too!

Pairings: Angel/Cordy-ness will show up around the 3rd chapter if all goes as planned. Wesley and Fred are already there because of Yellow.

Series Info: This is the thrid story in the Secret Demons Series. All the storys are posted on my website. English Demons is the first in the series and is being written at the same time as this story. Yellow is the second story and is posted in full.

Distribution:  As far as I know, WesleyFred mailing list, Angelfic mailing list, Fanfiction.net, Bookish, A Whole New World, Majiks World of Fan Fic, and Hello World: Fan Fiction is Fun.  Anyone else, ask first, please!

Update Notification:  There has been a list created to let people know about updates, if you have not received e-mail about it here is the link to get on it.  Or you can just give a shout out in feedback form and I can sign you up directly to the list. To Subscribe: FFIF_updates-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

That Christmas Thing – Chapter 1: Counting The Days
by Annabelle

It had been a week.  A whole entire week and already she was bored.  Evelyn sighed as watched the others in the hotel lobby finish up the breakfast she had made for them.  Eggs Benedict, fresh bacon, and biscuits that they had gobbled down greedy mumbling praise through mouthfuls of food.  She took up the empty plates and headed to the kitchen and looked at a calendar that was hanging on the wall as she passed by it.

“No!” she screeched and nearly dropped the plates.  Setting them down on the counter she ripped the calendar of the wall and ran over to Fred waving it in her face.  “Look at this!  Look at it!”

“What,” Fred stammered a little from the shock of having paper shoved in front of her.  “It is a calendar.”

“Yes it is a calendar, but look at the date,” Evie pointed at the 19^th of December still pushing the month further into her friend’s face.  “Do you know what that means?”

“That it is a Wednesday,” Fred brushed away Evie’s arm so calendar was no longer assaulting her.

Evie was totally stumped that Fred did not understand the significance of the date.  “There is less then a week till Christmas,” Evie stated as if it was the biggest dilemma in the world.

Giles looked up from the newspaper he was reading, “Evelyn, you shouldn’t be so shocked.  There is always just about a week till Christmas after the Bastlian mating season is finished.”

“Yes but,” Evie pouted at him.  “I normally get most of my Christmas shopping done before that.  So I don’t have to rush in the end.”

“Well who do have to go shopping for anyway,” Giles asked hiding his smile behind his newspaper.  He knew very well from what his friends had told him in England that Evelyn had a tendency to go over board when it came to Christmas.  She always got something for everyone and then she got more.  He swore that the family money had dwindled to half its size because of her holiday shopping spree.

Evie took away his newspaper and stared at him definitely, “That’s it!  You aren’t getting any gifts this year from me.”

Giles made a grab for the newspaper, “I would just like to finish the paper.  I don’t need a gift.”

With a sigh she gave him back the newspaper.  She went back to Fred’s side, “So are you going to help me with shopping?”

Fred shook her head vehemently, “Nuh uh!  The last time I helped you shop we didn’t come home with any money.  Besides I don’t this place as well as I used to.”

“But Winnie,” Evie started to pout then she saw Wesley come back from washing his hands.  “Wesley, you are just the person that I wanted to see.”

He looked up her with caution in his eyes, “What is it Evelyn?”

“Well you are the boss here and all right,” Evie paused and Wesley nodded slowly to agree with her.  “And we all agree that I am not to be trusted as of yet to go out on my own into the big city cause I could get kidnapped or something, right?”

Wesley crossed his arms in front of him and looked from Giles’s rather amused look back to Evie, “Well I guess you could but it would be safer to go with someone else.”

“See then you agree with me that Winnie needs to come with me to do Christmas shopping and that later today we will all go out and buy a tree to decorate,” Evie smiled and went to go get her things form her room.  “I will have to borrow some money though Dad, Quinten said that my account would not be transferred to a US bank for another few days yet.”

“I figured,” Giles hid his face behind his newspaper so that Wesley could not see his large smile.  The younger Englishman had no idea what he had just gotten himself into.

“Thanks for you help Wesley,” Evie smiled at him.  “I’ll be back in two minutes Winnie.”  She winked at her friend and then bounced up the stairs humming a some Christmas carol to herself.

“Ow!” Wesley rubbed his arm where Fred had just whacked him.  “What was that for?”

“For making me go Christmas shopping with Evie!” Fred glared at him and then stalked off into the kitchen taking her plate and snatching Gunn’s from him before he had a chance to finish.

Gunn tried to stop her, “Hey Fred, I wasn’t done with that yet.  Fred!”  Then he turned to Wesley.  “Thanks English.”

“What?” Wesley threw his arms up in the air.  “What did I do?”

“You sent Fred out Christmas shopping with Evie after Fred told Evie that she did not want to go,” Giles informed him still not moving from behind his newspaper.  It was the only thing keeping everyone for noticing how thoroughly he was enjoying the whole scene.

Wesley looked horrified, “Oh no.”  Thinking about the whole thing a bit more it started not to make sense to him, “Wait, why doesn’t she want to go with Evie?”

“Evie spends a lot of money or something like that,” Gunn filled him in.  “Fred also says she doesn’t know where any of the stores are around here so she wouldn’t be of much help anyway.”

Wesley turned to Cordelia who had been silent during the whole conversation.  She was reading something, “Why didn’t you volunteer to go?”

“Huh?” Cordelia took out some earphones and looked up from the papers in front of her.

“Never mind,” Wesley shook his head.  “Gunn you go with her.”

“What how come I got to go with her?” Gunn complained.

“Because besides Fred you are the one that knows her the best,” Wesley said pointedly.

Gunn scowled, “Now that’s not fair Wes.  It was only the pheromones.”

“And back I go upstairs,” Evie called out from the landing.

“Evelyn wait,” Wesley called out to her.

She took in a deep breath and then turned around and smiled at him.  “Yes Wesley?”

“Gunn is going to go with you Christmas shopping,” Wesley’s look made Gunn quite before he started to protest.  “He knows the city better then Fred.”

Evie shrugged her shoulders, “Fine.  But everyone has to come looking for the tree.”  She walked up behind Cordy and yelled in the younger girl’s ear, “That means you too Cordelia!”

Cordelia swatted the Evie but missed, “Just get out of here already would ya?”

“Gone!” Evelyn laughed and then signaled to Gunn to stand up.  As she passed by her father he held up his credit card.  “Thanks Daddy,” grabbed the card and made a dash for the door with Gunn trying to keep up with her.

“Just remember not to spend every penny of money that we have,” Giles called out after.  He watched her wave him off and grab Gunn’s arm to drag him with her.  He felt slightly sorry for the young man, he had no idea what he had just gotten himself into.

Fred walked back into the room and looked around, “Hey where’s Evie?  I thought I heard her?”

Wesley gave her a large smile and felt rather proud of himself, “I sent Gunn with her Christmas shopping?”

“You what?” Fred’s face started to go a bit red.

“I thought you would be happy,” he was confused.

Fred gave him a dirty look and stalked out of the room.  “I just can’t win today, can I,” Wesley sighed watching her go.

“Nope,” both Giles and Cordy said at the same time.

They had been on their feet for hours now.  Charles Gunn did not think it was possible for someone to buy any more than they had.  He has watched as Evelyn went into each store and came out with at least ten things.  They were always wrapped.  When he had tried to look into one of the bags she told him not to bother.  She did not want him telling anyone what she got them.

He let out a deep breath as he readjusted the packages that she had saddled him with.  He was thankful that he brought his truck with him.  At least they would have a place to put everything that she had.  Although he was starting to doubt that it would all fit.

“Evie girl,” Gunn called out to her.  She turned to him, “Are we almost done here?  It’s getting late.”

Evie looked at him for a moment.  Then she glanced down at all of her packages and thought for a minute, “Yeah I guess we are almost done for today.”

“Today!” Gunn let his mouth drop.  “You mean there is more tomorrow?”

“Well yeah,” Evie was a little startled by his shock.  “Hello, way behind in shopping here.”  He did not say anything.  “Whatever, there is only one more place that we have to go to.  A magic shop.”

“There ain’t any of those around this part of town,” Gunn informed her.  “We’ll have to drive a few minutes but I knew where there is a pretty good one.”

“Great!” she swung her bags into the back of his truck and hopped in.  “Well what are you waiting for?”

Gunn shook his head, “You do realize that you bought every single Christmas tree ornament in Crate & Barrel and Pier 1.”

Evie gave him a big grin, “Just the good ones.  Besides Angel probably doesn’t have any.  He doesn’t strike me the Christmas tree guy.”

“I think you are right about that,” Gunn agreed with her.  “But did you have to by every Christmas CD ever made?”

“I only got the ones that I didn’t have,” she laughed at him.  “Winnie loves them.  She always wanted to dance to, gosh which song was it now?  Well I don’t remember, but something about Ginger Rogers and Fred Aster.”

“It’s very nice of you to make her dream come true then,” Gunn’s eyes sparkled with his smile.

She gave him a small strained smile and then turned to look out the window, “I am gonna miss the snow.  We used to have white Christmases sometimes in London.  It was always exciting to sit up on Christmas Eve and wait to see if it would snow.”

“Won’t this Christmas be special in it’s own why though,” he tried to cheer her up.  “It’s been five years since you’ve since Fred around the holiday season and how many years has it been since you got to have a Christmas with your dad?”

She still did not look at him, “The last Christmas we had together was when I was four.”

“But I thought Fred said that he would come and see you for the holidays sometimes,” Gunn was confused.

“He would come around the holiday times,” Evie explained.  “But he could only ever stay a few days and always had to leave before Christmas Eve.”

“Oh,” was all he could think to say.  Then he decided to change the subject, “So what are you looking for at the magic shop?”

Evie shook her head, “I don’t know.  I am hoping when I see it I will know that I was looking for it.”

Gunn raised his eyebrow but said nothing.  He pulled the car to the side of the rode and parked in front a building that had a neon sign that said open light in the window.  They got out of the car and headed through the door of the shop, having to push aside a beaded curtain to get through to the sales floor.  He knew that the shop looked hokey but it was really the best magic shop around.  The owner just tried to sell to all types of people, especially tourists.

“Hello,” said the owner in a thick Hispanic accent that was kind of airy.  “How can I help you today?”  He took a closer look at his customers, “You young lady must be from my home land, raised in the Andes no doubt.”

“England,” Evie shook her head and looked over everything the shop.  “Are you a practicing warlock because I don’t deal with novice shop keepers.  But is bad business to sell something if you don’t know what it is, makes people look down on the whole magic community.”

“Naw,” the man spoke with out the airy tone anymore but still with the thick accent.  “I know what I am doing, my father did the same for his people back in Peru.  I don’t practice though.”

“Well as long as you know what you are doing,” Evie motioned Gunn closer to her.  “Look at that.”

Gunn looked into the glass counter that Evie was staring at.  He saw two red jewels set in some gold and they looked like they were necklaces  “What is it?” he asked her.

Evie shook her head, “I don’t know, but I am drawn to them for some reason.”

“Those jewels were found in the temple of Kali and the gold that they are set in is said to be from the was-scepter of Ptah,” the shopkeeper stood on the other side of the counter and removed the two necklaces from the behind the glass.

Evelyn’s eyes flew from the necklaces to the shopkeeper, “Those are scared objects.  If the right ritual was not performed then whoever touches these will be cursed.”

The shopkeeper dropped the objects in shock, “I didn’t, I had no idea.”

She laughed at him, “And now they are scratched, I want ten percent off.”

Gunn laughed at the shopkeepers angry look.  Evie warned him that she knew what she was doing, but the man had not believed her.  He watched her bargain down the price with skill and ease.  After a few minutes the man gave in and Evie walked out with the two necklaces wrapped neatly and a large smile on her face.

“Evie,” Gunn was sure that he was about to put his foot in his mouth but he had to know.  “Are those things really dangerous?”

She held up the bag and gave him an odd look, “This things?  Nah, did you see how small they were?  Just the right size for who the will be going to though.  Besides did you actually believe that the gold is from Ptah’s scepter and the jewels were from Kali’s temple?”

He laughed, “I will admit I did for a second.”

“See,” she patted his arm.  “That’s how they suck you in.  Don’t believe everything that you hear Gunn.  You will lose more money that way.”

Gunn smiled at her and the got back into his truck.  They made their way back to the hotel stopping to look at a Christmas tree lot on the way.  Evie wanted to make sure that they did not waste too much time in choosing a tree.  She knew that there was no way she was going to be able to talk down the cost of the tree and price was always an issue.