diff --git a/test/serve/spike.test.ts b/test/serve/spike.test.ts
index 26d14b5..a865832 100644
--- a/test/serve/spike.test.ts
+++ b/test/serve/spike.test.ts
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@ import { createServer, connect } from 'node:net';
 import { Worker } from 'node:worker_threads';
 
 describe('fd-passing spike', () => {
-  it('fd extracted on main and reconstructed as net.Socket on a worker thread', async () => {
+  it('fd extracted on main and reconstructed as net.Socket on a worker thread', { timeout: 5000 }, async () => {
     // Spawn worker with an inline string source
     const workerCode = `
       const { parentPort } = require('node:worker_threads');
@@ -44,7 +44,7 @@ describe('fd-passing spike', () => {
     // Client connects, reads the reply
     const client = connect(port);
     const chunks: Buffer[] = [];
-    client.on('data', (c) => chunks.push(c));
+    client.on('data', (c) => chunks.push(Buffer.isBuffer(c) ? c : Buffer.from(c)));
     await once(client, 'end');
 
     assert.equal(Buffer.concat(chunks).toString('utf8'), 'hello\n');