Realisation.
It had come to Buffy just after the argument last night. Buffy had come back to the flat after a week in the Yorkshire moors training new slayers. No mall, no heating, no indoor plumbing for a week, she was not in a good mood. She came home a few hours early and found Dawn on the couch, making out with a boy with a wanna be bad attitude, which had not quite held up when Buffy had picked him up with one hand and thrown him out.
She knew she had overreacted as soon as she saw Dawn standing behind her, fuming. "What the hell do you think you are doing?" She was not yelling, it was worse "He was my date!" "Dawnie he was" She smelt the air "have you been drinking cider?"
"What if I have? Drinking age is 18 here remember? Just like me, or did you forget that too? Again?"
Buffy was definitely on the back foot and too tired for this "Dawnie"
"My name is Dawn" The tone of her voice chilled Buffy, it was not anger now, it was hate.
"Dawn, he is not good enough for you-"
"How would you know? And if he is not good enough, who the hell is Buffy, Who...the hell... is?" She was standing an inch from Buffy's face now.
She walked to the workout room and Buffy soon heard the sound of a punching bag being systematically destroyed.
She had a shower, sat down on her bed and cried. Then she thought about who was good enough for Dawn, her baby sister who spoke 12 languages including several that Lonely Planet did not know existed let alone published a phrase book for. Her best friend who she had shown the world and who could break a man's arm in 15 different ways without a weapon. Who was good enough?
Then it came to her.
She lay down staring at the photos on the wall, trying to get her head around the idea; she tried to find a fault with her logic and could not. She tried to think of anyone else who could fit, but she always came to the same conclusion. Who else could make Dawn happy, who else would understand her past, who else would be able to protect her... and who else could Dawn truly love.
A few years before in Sunnydale, another life ago, she had told him, if he touched her sister, she would stake him, but even then she had known she couldn't.
And when she realized this, she cried again, and cried herself to sleep.
The next morning when she got up, Dawn had already left; Buffy had another shower and put on her make up, doing the best to hide last night. Knowing exactly what she had to do.
Walked to the living room, and sat down next to the phone and hit a number on the speed dial.
"Watchers building, Sarah speaking, how may I help you?"
"This is Buffy Summers... I'd like to speak to Xand- er... Mr Harris please."