Warning: some unsavory stuff ahead.


Dawn stormed down the cemetery paths, ready to extract her revenge on Spike…well, probably not. But she was going to scold him till he wished that he was dead…er. She had her backpack with extra stakes and holy water. She held one in her hand as well. She didn't expect to use it, but she had never expected Spike to be violent. But after what he tried to do to Buffy she knew that he really was just a heartless monster and she couldn't trust him.

She didn't bother knocking on the crypt's door, just flung it open, sending it crashing into the stone wall behind it. She looked around the crypt and spotted the top of Spike's peroxide blonde head in the armchair, sitting in front of a black television.

"S-Spike." Dawn said, trying to keep her voice cool.

"Yes, Nibblet?" His voice was soft, deep, and monotone. Like he had already resigned himself to this.

"Don't call me that!" Dawn shouted at him. "You called me that when you were my friend; you're not my friend anymore. How could you do that Spike? I thought you loved her, how could you do that to her?" She waited for a reply. He took a moment to respond.

"It's complicated." Was all he said.

"Oh, it's complicated, everything's so fucking complicated. It's not complicated Spike! You said you were my friend, you took care of me and paid attention to me when no one else would, and then you go and try and rape my sister! What's complicated about that? The only thing that's complicated was how you can stand to look at me and tell me you're my friend while you and Buffy were just sitting there hurting each other, cutting each other's souls? Did you forget that we're sisters? More than sisters, really, since it's her blood in my veins. Did you forget that Spike?"

"I never forgot. Anything."

"So you thought if you tried to rape her you'd still be good with me? Well, I have a news flash. What you did to her was as bad if you had done it to me, and I will never forgive you for what you did to her. And I can never forgive you for hurting me, and hurting the people I love."

"That's fine."

They sat in silence for a moment. Dawn had come with the expectation that there would be shouting, that there would be emotional bloodletting. That she would feel better. She did not feel better. She just felt like Spike wasn't paying attention to anything he said, that he was just humoring her till she left. Well, she though hitching her backpack up on her shoulders, she was going to get him to react, he would have to look at her and see the damage and hurt he had caused her.

"You should, Dawn." Spike said quietly. Dawn frowned.

"No," she said walking over to him, intending to plant herself in front of him so he'd have to look at her. "You're not listening to me, you're just a cold, heartless monster, you don't give a fuck how much you've hurt me-" She trailed off when she was in front of him, shocked. His head was down, a bottle of bourbon in his left hand, a knife bloody halfway up the hilt in his right. He wasn't wearing a shirt, revealing the deep gashes up both arms, across his stomach, the scratches on his chest. Blood was smeared all over him.

"Spike." She whispered as she touched a place on his arm that was not cut up. He jerked away from her, sloshing his bourbon. Those blue eyes slowly rose to meet her own and the emptiness in them made her drown.

"You should go, Dawn"