Title: Waiting
Summer of Season Six
Sometimes Dawn would just sit there when Buffy was downstairs watching TV or cleaning the kitchen. She'll just sit on the bathroom floor with a lighter in her hand, thinking about Spike screaming in pain as the flame engulfed him. She'd play everything he said to her in her mind. All the lies of love and caring and then she'll remember what Xander told her, she'll remember the shame in Buffy's eyes when she confronted her on it. "Like Buffy should be filled with shame!" Dawn thinks as she flips the lighter on and off. "He's coming back." She thinks, her cold blue eyes staring at the lighter. "He always comes back." She flips the lighter on. "And I'll be waiting."
Title: Waiting Pt. 2
Summer of Season six
Sometimes when Xander's not there and Buffy's at work, Dawn will sneak into the Buffy's room. Her lighter and promises of dust, forgotten as she pulls out the leather duster from the closet. She'll put it on and hug herself, because it's like hugging him. She smells it because it smells like cigarettes and Jack Daniel's and ever since last summer it's the only smell that calms her down. She looks for possible lose hairs because nothing shines quite as bright as they do, and she misses it more then she'll admit, even to her self. And sometimes when she's alone on the closet floor, hugging a person whose not there, she cry's over and over, "Please come back you've been gone to long. I'm so tired of waiting."