Title: A Second Chance
Author: Waynej
Email:
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: All Buffy The Vampire Slayer characters belong to Joss Whedon.
Summary: Six years post Chosen Dawn and Xander run the US Council of Watchers headquarters in Cleveland. Dawn/Xander.
A/N this is a rewritten version of an earlier story I started. I hope you enjoy.
Chapter 1:
Dawn Summers reclined in her seat on the airplane, which was high above the Atlantic Ocean somewhere between London and Cleveland. She put her head back and thought back on the past six years. Six years ago, the Scoobies and potential slayers fought their final battle against the First Evil and sealed the Hellmouth in the process. During the battle, Willow had performed a spell activating all the potential slayers throughout the world. Sensing how widespread the spell was, the Scoobies split up going around the world to find all the newly activated slayers after spending some time with Angel at the Hyperion Hotel in Los Angeles.
Xander, after the loss of Anya and discovering that his first girlfriend, Cordelia, was in a coma, took off alone to Africa. Willow soon followed Xander's example and took off to Brazil with Kennedy. Giles then left for England to rebuild the Watcher's Council taking Andrew with him as his assistant. Finally, Dawn and Buffy left for Rome where Dawn finished high school and Buffy took a long needed vacation from saving the world on a yearly basis.
For six months Dawn and Buffy got some serious bonding time in and both thoroughly enjoyed themselves in the ancient city. Eventually Buffy found herself a boyfriend, and as usual when that happens, she stopped spending her time with Dawn, which angered the teenager greatly. Things deteriorated even faster when Buffy heard that Angel and Spike both died in a battle in Los Angeles. Buffy found out that Andrew and Giles had known that Spike was back from the dead for nearly a year but had refused to tell her about it. Buffy then kicked Andrew, who had been staying with Buffy and Dawn for a while, out of the apartment and then quit from the council refusing to ever talk with Giles again. Dawn was upset about all of this because it meant an end to the weekly phone calls she had with the other scoobies. Dawn was left with only whatever friendships she could find at her school. Dawn's school social life ended when after a popular boy finally asked her out, he was tossed out of the apartment after making out with Dawn, nobody at school would ever talk with her after that.
After graduating from High School, Dawn enrolled at Oxford where she double majored in Classic Languages and Mythology and was able to spend her weekends with Giles and Willow, who had returned with Kennedy from their slayer finding mission in Brazil. Dawn's familial contact with her friends increased her confidence greatly and she was able to graduate finishing 3rd in her class and was cheered by Giles and Willow. Buffy had failed to attend, which was no big surprise to Dawn.
After graduating, Dawn joined the council where she expected to be assigned a couple of slayers and perform normal watcher duties. She was surprised however, when instead Giles offered her a position of Co-Director in charge of research of the US branch of the council. Dawn was reluctant to accept the position, as it would mean she would have to stop her regular contact with Giles and Willow, until she discovered that the other co-director was Xander.
Dawn hadn't had contact with Xander since Buffy retired which was probably the largest reason for her depression following that event. In the year leading up to the battle with The First, Dawn had become increasingly close to Xander to the point where he had become her best friend. Dawn was especially grateful for the time that Xander had shown her that it was okay to be normal after Dawn found out that she wasn't the Sunnydale potential and that Amanda was instead.
In addition to Dawn's friendship with Xander, there was the issue of Dawn's old crush on him, an old crush that Dawn isn't sure she ever had outgrown. Dawn still misses his often-disheveled wavy hair and how he was always able to make her laugh with his silly jokes.
Dawn noticed that her plane was landing so she braced herself for the landing and then got her bags together. Dawn then carried her carry on luggage with her as she went across the tunnel to the terminal. She moved from the terminal and past security and then got on the escalator leading to luggage pickup and started looking for Xander.
Xander had been waiting for Dawn in the luggage pick up area for a while. The last time he had seen her was shortly after the battle with the First. Xander had lost Anya in that battle so his heart was aching. It got worse when they got to the Hyperion and Xander found out that his first girlfriend, Cordelia, recently went into a coma and was being treated at an evil law firm. Xander was upset that both women who had been his girlfriends were now either dead or as good as dead and was worried about the other women in his life Buffy, Willow, and Dawn whom he had increasingly attached to. To avoid putting "his girls" in trouble, Xander decided to leave at once and go to Africa to find the new slayers.
Xander spent two grueling years in Africa where he found new slayers, and built alliances with several tribes and countries. Giles then asked him to return to the states and start up a new US watcher's council headquarters. Xander eventually caved in to the request and moved to Cleveland and set up shop with Robin Wood and Faith who ran the slayer school, and with Andrew who was the researcher.
After four good years in Cleveland, Andrew got called back to England and Giles informed Xander that Dawn would be taking his place as Co-Director of Research. Xander hadn't been in touch with Dawn since Buffy had quit the Council, but Giles and Willow have kept him up on her progress at Oxford. Xander heard that Dawn's flight was now unloading so he started to look for her by the escalator.
After looking for a few minutes, Xander noticed a very attractive, tall brunette at the bottom of the escalator. Xander was surprised when the brunette saw him and started running towards him ending in a big hug and a kiss on his cheek. "Dawnie?" he asked.
"Yes it's me, Xander, I've missed you soo much." Dawn replied while still hugging the man with the eye patch.
"You've grown a lot since I last saw you." Xander said as he gazed at the beauty before his eye.
"Not much, only about an inch since I last saw you. You were just expecting to see Dawnie, Buffy's little sister instead of Dawn the mature adult. I'm exhausted, do you think we can get my bags and get going, we can get more talking in later."
"Sure thing Dawnster, I think your luggage is coming 3 belts down." Xander replied while pointing at a conveyer belt.
The two old friends walked over to the belt, they waited and as Dawn pointed out a bag as hers, Xander picked it up off the belt and on to the floor beside them. When all of Dawn's bags were accounted for the two exited the airport and headed towards the car.