Summary: Scott and Dawn Summers share more than a last name, they share blood.

Pairing(s): Mention of established Scott/Jean

Rating: G

Warnings/Spoilers: Takes place before Buffy Season 5 Episode #83: "No Place Like Home", and the comic-verse X-Men.

Disclaimer: I don't own them, I wish I did, I just take them out to play every now and again. All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended. The only thing I get out of this is the pleasure of having written and hopefully some positive feedback.

Feedback: I thrive on constructive feedback so please send it!

Archive: Sure just let me know where so I can send people to see it and you MUST keep this header attached :)

Authors Notes: TTH FFA Dawn Summers/Scott Summers. Thanks to DeeRose for her review which caused me to rewrite the story in a much better way. * Story originally posted September 20, 2007 edited/expanded/modified/updated May 30, 2018.

She's My What?!

Salem Center, New York

"That's impossible Professor! Alex and I are the only children Corsair had, another one just can't pop into existence out of nowhere," Scott Summers refuted as he paced back and forth in the professor's study.

The bald Professor Charles Xavier leaned back in his wheelchair, folded his hands in his lap and asked, "Have you already forgotten about Gabriel?"

"Trying to," grunted the unhappy X-Man, not pleased to be reminded of his 'newest brother'. It wasn't every day you found out that you suddenly had a new brother in the family, and then found out that he was a supervillan bent on destroying your mentor. "But Professor, he was the last, there couldn't possibly be any more children. Mother was killed with Gabriel inside her, so that's it… there are no more."

Closing his eyes and concentrating internally on something unseen, Professor X shook his head, "I believe this new sibling must be with a different mother, unlike Alex and Gabriel, her mental imprint is slightly off. Perhaps she isn't a sibling at all, but rather a cousin. Whatever the case may be, you need to investigate and get answers."

"Her?" Scott looked up and the professor's image reflected in his ruby glasses. This was the first time Xavier had mentioned it wasn't another brother; now the idea of having a fourth sibling was troubling in a completely different manner. Now he was less concerned that she'd turn out to be evil, like Gabriel, but he was more concerned that she might need protecting. It wasn't a matter of being a chauvinist against women, he knew all too well women could take care of themselves. No, it was a matter of chivalry and the desire to protect those who might need it, and since Scott didn't yet know if she had the powers to protect herself, or if, instead, she was completely human and might possibly in danger just by being related to him. "Alright Professor, where is she?"

"Sunnydale, California. Cerebro can't pin point it any further yet, though when you arrive I will use your mind and presence in the area to narrow down her location. I want you to leave first thing tomorrow morning."

Sunnydale, California

"Xander!" The young girl squealed as she tossed her arms around the only person who ever treated her like an equal. "Thankyouthankyouthankyou! I so didn't want to watch the back of Buffy and Riley's heads when they make-out in the drive-in again."

"Dawn!" Buffy snapped in annoyance, but then after thinking about it for a moment, she gave in, "Yeah well, it will be nice to not have you making play-by-play calls!"

"Unneeded visual there! Quick somebody stab me in my third-eye and make it go away," Xander begged, held his hands up in protest and clamped his eyes closed tightly as if that would blind him to the mental imagery.

Joyfully dismissing her sister without a further comment, Dawn grabbed Xander by the hand, "Come on, let's go find a game."

Early Monday morning, Scott took the Blackbird and flew out to Sunnydale, California, parking the jet on the outskirts of town, once again grateful for the Shi'ar cloaking device Forge installed which literally made the Blackbird invisible. Scott himself, however, was not as invisible as his jet, and despite wearing very normal looking bluejeans, t-shirt, leather jacket, and his ruby glasses—which could pass as 'cool sunglasses'—it was his age that drew the odd looks from students and teachers alike as he wandered the campus of Sunnydale high school.

As Scott saw it, he was looking for a teenage girl, and if he had any hopes of finding her, he had to try the one place in the city where teenage girls are usually found on a school day, and fortunately for him, there was only one highschool in Sunnydale. /I'm at the school Professor,/ he thought to his telepathic mentor and waited for the reply as he looked around the campus.

/Good. I'm already with Cerebro. Find a central place where you'll be able to sit down and concentrate, I will need to use your mind as an extension to help Cerebro pinpoint her directly and it will be easier if you are not moving./ Professor Xavier requested as he began to concentrate first on Scott's location before he could try to find the girl.

Looking around Scott found a wall that was enough in the middle of the school to work, yet not such a busy location that people would be tripping over him if he sat still there for a while without paying attention to what was happening around him since the professor would be using his mind. /Ready Professor./

Long moments passed as the mutant sat quietly against the wall, allowing his mind to be used as tracking tool. Scott could feel the presence of his mentor in his mind and images flashed so quickly before his mind's eye that he grew a bit nauseated, but he held tight until—at last—he had a clear image of a girl with long light brown hair, blue eyes, and an infectious smile that caused Scott to smile with her. /I've found her,/ the professor announced as if the image wasn't already in the X-Man's mind, /Dawn Summers, she's in history class, I'll guide you there./

"Last period, come on alarm, ring already!" Dawn whispered to the clock which seemed to have stopped running, as if her desire alone could force the end of class to arrive.

The door to the classroom opened and a hall monitor came in, followed by a tall, uber-cute guy with dark red sunglasses on. They whispered with the teacher for a moment, but the end-of-day bell rang and all the students jumped out of their seats, grabbed their things and ran for glorious freedom. Quickly the teacher called out over the din of fleeing students, "Dawn Summers! Come here please!"

"Aww man!" Of all the rotten luck! Dawn wanted to go find out the latest info on Rick and Naomi from Charlene, but now she had to stay after class. "Yes, Miss Conners?"

"This is Scott Summers, he would like to talk to you about a family matter," Miss Conners said, gesturing to the cute guy, then busied herself gathering her daily planner and other papers from the desk, so she could remain close if Dawn needed her, and still appear to be doing something other than eavesdropping.

"Hello, Dawn. Like your teacher said, I'm Scott Summers. I believe we are related through my father's side."

"You know my dad?" Dawn seemed surprised, but not entirely shocked, with the same last name this guy could easily be a cousin or uncle even.

"That's what I'd like to find out. I'd like to meet your parents if I could," Scott asked.

Dawn shrugged, "You can meet Mom and my sister Buffy, but Dad's out of the picture, living in L.A."

"Alright, could you introduce me to them then?" Scott asked and gestured towards her books, offering to carry them for her. Still naive in the dangerous ways of Sunnydale, Dawn gleefully let this stranger take her books. He was really cute and besides, he was family right?

"Wait a minute, Mr. Summers, I can't just let you walk off with one of my students," Miss Connors refused and put a hand on Dawn's shoulder, "Dawn, you don't know this man. You should get a hold of your mother or sister and have them meet you here."

Scott sighed, but nodded his head, "That's fine with me. I'm okay waiting here for your mom or sister to come get you and meet me here in public if that's what you'd prefer."

"I'm sure its fine, he's family!" Dawn told her teacher with an ultra sweet smile, trying to get her to let her leave with the man.

Now it was Scott's turn to be concerned, she was far too trusting of a man she just met, perhaps it was a good thing he came to see if she was safe. "No, no, Miss Connors is right, go ahead and call your mom, I'll stay right here with Miss Connors." He looked at her teacher, "Would that be alright?"

Miss Connors seemed alright with that scenario and nodded, "Yes, Dawn, go call your mom and tell her to meet us all here."

Rolling her eyes and giving out a loud sigh, "Fine..." Dawn pouted and went to the front office to use the phone.

"Mr. Summers, I'd like to see your ID," the suspicious teacher demanded, and so Scott pulled out his wallet and passed her his New York state driver's license. "What do you do Mr. Summers?"

"I'm a flight instructor," Scott answered simply.

"And how did you find out about Dawn?" Miss Connors squinted at him.

Scott beamed a charming smile at her, and answered, "I'm sorry Miss Connors, but its a private matter between me and the rest of the Summers family. I understand your concern for her, and I am willing to meet her family here in front of you, so you know I am not just a kidnapper out to steal Dawn away, but I am not willing to get into private family business. If they decide to tell you after, that's their choice, but I won't take that choice away from them if its something they prefer to keep private. I hope you understand."

The curious teacher made a dissatisfied face, but nodded, "I understand."

As they waited for Dawn's mother to come pick her up, Scott and Dawn stood quietly talking about today's history lesson. Meanwhile, Professor Xavier probed the surface of the girl's mind to confirm that yes, she really did have a similar mental imprint as Scott and the other members of his family, but they both agreed a DNA test would be important, though the professor was convinced that she was, in fact, related to Scott in some way.

Joyce Summers met with Scott in Dawn's classroom and agreed to let him follow them back to their home so they could talk in private about the family matter that Scott brought up. Once they were back in their home and sitting in the living room, Joyce asked, "And who is it you think you might be related to?"

With a soft shrug of his shoulders Scott said, "Well it could be anyone, though I am thinking perhaps your husband? Was his name Christopher by any chance?"

"My husband was Hank, not Christopher," Joyce shook her head.

"Maybe you know his call sign; Corsair? He was a pilot, a major in the United States Air Force." Scott asked hoping that would ring a bell.

Joyce shook her head once more, "No, I'm sorry, Hank wasn't in the military."

"Ooooh! What if Dad has some secret dark past that he kept hidden from us all," another blond woman—Dawn's sister Buffy—offered a bit too cheerfully.

"Buffy!" Joyce admonished, but then chuckled, "I'm sorry Mr. Summers, maybe we have another relative in common? How did you find Dawn to begin with? I mean, who ever told you that you were related to Dawn must have mentioned you were related to us also?"

"Call me Scott, please, and actually no. I found out about Dawn in a letter my cousin had written before she died. I had very little information, but what I had led me to Sunnydale High. Some of the letters were badly damaged, some were merely scraps of paper, the one with Dawn's name on it read 'and our Dawn is finally in high school in Sunnydale.' I planned on finding about the rest of you once I found Dawn," Scott gave the lie he and Professor Xavier had come up with so he wouldn't have to mention mutants or the X-Men.

"So another relative it is then," Joyce said trying to remember anyone named Christopher in Hank's family, or even any pilots from the air force.

"Can I see a photograph of Hank Summers please? I might recognize him from one of our family albums," Scott requested thinking that the truth of it could just be that Corsair came back to Earth and was using a different name to be safe.

"Of course," Joyce said and left the room to find one.

Buffy, however, wasn't as excited to meet a new family member as Dawn and her mom were. Why this guy? Why now? Who was he really? She could tell he was keeping something from them, but she could also tell he really believed he was related to them in someway. Why couldn't being a Slayer give her the power to detect lies? That would be really helpful to her not only now, but always; might even have saved a few of the previous slayers lives.

Brought out of her thoughts by a piercing giggle, Buffy started paying attention to the conversation between her sister and the new guy and realized he was asking her all sorts of questions: what's her favorite subject in school, had she always lived in California, did she have a boyfriend. It was creeping Buffy out so she interrupted them, "So where do you come from Scott? What do you do?"

"I live in Salem Center, New York. I'm an instructor at the Xavier Institute for Higher Learning," he replied easily enough.

"What do you teach?"

"Fixed wing aircraft flying," that was something Scott had in common with dear old dad, like Corsair he took to the air like a natural, so why not say he taught it? He really was a pilot after all.

"So, like, no helicopters?" Dawn blurted out.

"Right, no helicopters," Scott agreed and focused back in on the younger girl, "What do you want to be when you grow up, Dawn?"

"Here you go," Joyce interrupted them passing him the most recent photo of Hank she had, and even that was several years old.

Taking the photo in hand, Scott looked and saw a man who was definitely not his father. Deflated he shook his head, sighed, and handed the photo back, "I guess it must be a grandfather or great-grandfather that had a brother not mentioned. I was sure when I saw Hank I'd recognize him." With the clear absence of Corsair in this situation, Scott had no clue how this little girl could be his sister or cousin, but he knew that a DNA test would help; but how does one get blood from a kid with her mother and older sister around?

Joyce leaned over and placed a gentle hand on Scott's, "I know it's disheartening to be looking for answers and finding none, but don't give up. If we really are related, we can work together to find out how."

Just then an idea popped into Buffy's mind. She wasn't sure who this guy was, and she didn't like his sudden appearance in their lives and his asking all these personal questions to Dawn specifically, so why not see if he minded being looked into. Surely if he was lying he would hate the idea of his life being probed. "Hey, why don't I call Will? She can look up all kinds of things on the computer, birth records included. I'm sure if I ask her to, she could find the connection like that," she snapped her fingers and looked to see Scott's reaction, wishing, not for the first time, that he would take those stupid sunglasses off so she could look into his eyes for the truth.

Instead of looking upset, Scott smiled broadly and nodded enthusiastically, "That's a great idea. When do you think she could do it?" He needed time to find a way to get Dawn's DNA to test back home, and an in depth computer search could be a good stall for time. There was no worry over what they would find on the web about him, that sort of thing had all been taken care of long ago; you couldn't be a secret crime fighter if you didn't have a well established alternate public persona.

"Let me give her a call and see if she can do it right now."

"I've got their family records pretty far back, but I'm just not seeing a connection between his family and yours. He's got a brother Alex, they grew up in Anchorage, Alaska with their parents Christopher, who really was a pilot and test pilot for the air force, and Katherine Summers, who—oh how sad—they died in a plain crash when the boys were little. Scott was in a coma for a while the news article says," Willow announced with a frown. "Then they were put in an orphanage." She said and clicked and typed away on the computer, "Looking at the orphanage records it seems Alex was adopted fast, but Scott stayed there till he was 16 when he ran away." Willow continued look up Scott's past. "Unless someone did something off the record, like an illegitimate baby or something I don't see where his line and your line cross at all." Willow offered, resting her chin on her palm as she stared at the glowing computer screen.

Looking over Willow's shoulder at the records, Buffy shook her head then whispered softly, "And there is no police file on this guy? No Watcher file? Anything?"

"No, well nothing bad that is. I found his pilots registration, his teaching certification, and all that kind of stuff, but nothing that would make him interesting to the Slayer. Oh hey, neat, he was registered as a student at the same school he teaches at now. He's been at Xavier Institute for Higher Learning since around the time he left the orphanage, but back then it was called Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters. Guess he went to school there, and appreciated them taking him in so much he became an instructor there too. Maybe 'the school for gifted youngsters' is really a kind of orphanage too. It says here the students all live on the grounds of the school. Oh, but wait, now it looks like the School for Gifted Youngsters is in Massachusetts." Willow said as she clicked a new link.

"Back up there research-girl. Doesn't matter where the school is now, not really caring about the school. There's got to be something more about him. Scott Summers coming out of no where and asking about Dawnie, this just doesn't feel right," Buffy groused as she looked from the dining room where Willow had set up her laptop computer, into the living room where her mom, sister and a stranger all sat swapping stories. A plate of cookies and a few glasses of milk sat on the coffee table because Joyce had decided everyone should have a snack and made the mistake of letting Dawn pick what kind of snack. Dawn was currently pointing and laughing at Scott's 'milk mustache', and to his credit he wasn't killing her for it, just smiling and enjoying the time with them.

"Well, Buffy, seeing how he was stuck in an orphanage with no family at all for a big part of his childhood, I can see why he's looking for family connections now. Wouldn't you want to meet any family you had if you didn't have any for so long?"

"Yeah, I guess so." Buffy relented with a deep sigh, patted Willow on the shoulder then moved back over to the group on the couch, sitting right on top of Dawn, and stealing the cookie she was just about to eat, "You'll ruin your dinner," she then ate the cookie herself. "Willow says she can't find a connection. It could be that you're just not related to us at all, maybe it's a different Dawn Summers, and all this is just a waste of our time."

"Buffy!" Joyce admonished, "Be nice! Scott is clearly reaching out to find family here, if we aren't the ones, we can still be nice to him!"

"Sorry, mom," Buffy said reluctantly.

"Don't tell me, tell him!" Joyce pointed at Scott who was wiping the milk mustache away with a napkin.

"Sorry, Scott."

Smiling Scott nodded, "It's alright. You're right; I come out of no where, insisting I'm family, there's reason to be cautious. Why don't I head out, let you have time to think it all over. If your friend find's the answer, please call me okay?" Scott stood up and pulled his keys out of his pocket.

Standing with him Joyce nodded, "Let me take down your phone number."

Dawn still had her school books next to her so she shoved Buffy off her lap and got her mom a piece of notebook paper and a pen with a pink fuzzy ball on top. When her mom took the items, she looked at the pink fuzzy ball and then back at Dawn, who giggled, "What? I'm a teenage girl! I like this kind of stuff!" Joyce just shook her head and smiled, taking down Scott's contact information.

Once he'd filled her in on his private phone number and the school's main line number 'just in case', Scott smiled and turned to shake Joyce's hand, then Buffy's too, but when he went to shake Dawn's hand she threw herself at him and pulled him into a hug. "I hope you are part of our family, you got some really cool stories."

That was the opening Scott had been looking for. Having already pocketed a napkin Joyce had coughed into, and a few strands of Buffy's hair that she had shed onto the couch before Willow arrived, he had only Dawn left to get a sample of DNA from; so when Dawn pulled herself out of the hug, he let his keys scrape against her, giving her a slight cut. Dawn yelped and turned her arm to look at what happened, but was relieved to see only a minor scrape. "I'm so sorry Dawn!" Scott apologized profusely, pulled his handkerchief out and pressed it against her skin, holding it there to soak up the blood, supposedly holding it there to help it to clot.

"It's okay, really, its okay," Dawn assured him and when he took the handkerchief off her arm she said, "See, no harm done."

Scott apologized again, pocketing the cloth with the tiny amount of blood on it, said his good byes again then headed out to his rental car. A few minutes by car to the Blackbird, a couple of hours by jet to the school, as long as it took to complete the blood test and he would finally know how they were related.

"I swear on my life I'd never keep that kind of secret hidden from you, Jean. How could I? You're telepathic! I've opened my mind to you fully; you know everything about me there is to know! I do not have a daughter! You have known me for longer than she has been alive!" Scott was trying to explain from his place stuck to the ceiling where Jean held him telekinetically in her anger over finding out from the DNA tests that Dawn Summers was the biological daughter of Buffy and Scott.

While Scott had been part of the X-Men since he was 16 years old, and his and Jean's relationship started shortly after she joined the X-Men, this didn't mean Scott couldn't have had an affair. However, even she had to admit, it was less likely that he had had an affair, and more likely that Mr. Sinister had something to do with Dawn's creation. It wasn't the first time Sinister had meddled with their DNA. Madelyne Pryor was a clone of Jean herself, so there was a distinct possibility that Sinister was involved now. Without a word Jean released Scott from her telekinetic hold and allowed him to unceremoniously fall to the ground. "Then she is a creation of Sinister's," she declared and headed to the computer, checking to see if they knew where Mr. Sinister was currently located.

Deeply sighing as he pulled himself up off the floor, Scott informed the Professor what Jean's theory was, and asked him if he could find out exactly what Dawn was, the Professor agreed and got to work on it with the help of Cerebro and Dawn herself, though she didn't notice his telepathic touch.

The Professor, Scott and Jean gathered in the med lab to discuss Dawn, while looking over the blood test results yet again. "What can we do Professor?" Jean asked deflated, all her ideas exhausted.

"Nothing, she's safer where she is, as a normal teenage girl in a normal town. If we do anything it could cause undue attention to come to her from whom ever the monks are protecting her from." The professor explained as he looked at the screen revealing Dawn's parentage. It had taken him some time, but the professor's power was strong enough that he was able to find out what she was, a magical creation, a construct, but not by Mr. Sinister. Instead it was by some monks who gave living form to "The Key" which could open portals to any dimension.

"I have to go back to end the question of how we are related. We can't let that just hang out there for them to continue to wonder about. We also need them to feel like they can call on us for help, well me anyway. The monks must have thought of that also since they made her my daughter; I'm the second line of defense," Scott said suddenly feeling a bizarre overwhelming need to keep this girl, who was apparently his flesh and blood, in his life somehow.

Jean kept her mouth and mind shut as a wave of jealousy passed through her, it was irrational and she knew it, but still couldn't help it.

The Professor nodded, "Indeed that seems to have been on their minds. Perhaps if Buffy were killed defending her, Dawn would be sent here, and all of our memories changed to fit the story of her being your daughter or sister. If Buffy is never killed, you'd never have needed to know, which would account for why you have no false memories of her. There would be no need for you to know of her until and unless she was put into your care. They couldn't have known that I would find her with Cerebro."

Scott sighed deeply and rubbed the back of his neck,"Alright, I'll head over there to tell them what I've 'found out' about my being the grandson of their great-grandfather's brother. Hopefully Buffy will buy it and turn to me if things get rough."

"I can help nudge her toward trusting you," the professor smiled. He would plant reassurance into Buffy, Dawn and even Joyce's minds that Scott was a responsible, honorable man so that Scott could effectively be a trusted member of their extended family.

"Thanks Professor," Scott said, gave Jean a kiss on the cheek and headed back to the Blackbird and California.

Once he was gone the professor looked at Jean and telepathically touched her mind, /Jean, please understand, he had nothing to do with this and his attachment to the girl is natural, he just found out he has a new relative and for Scott that's very important. Family means the world to him, you know that. So to find out he has a daughter, even one he didn't actually create, naturally makes him feel responsible for her well being./

/I know Professor, I know. I just have to sit down and deal with it. I always thought I would have Scott's first child,/ Jean sighed and the professor gave her hand a squeeze.

/You will, his first naturally born child./ The professor reassured her.

"Well I'm not surprised Hank didn't mention him then, perhaps he didn't even know himself," Joyce said then finished off her coffee.

Shrugging Scott agreed, "It's not easy being related to the black sheep of the family. I'm glad you guys don't hold it against me."

"There's a lot of good people out there who are related to monsters, that doesn't make them monsters too, unless of course it's them who are the monsters, but even then that doesn't mean they are actually bad people—" Buffy shut herself up realizing she was saying things she shouldn't. "Rambling insanely now, need more coffee," she excused herself and slipped into the kitchen.

Dawn just watched her sister go and then looked back at Scott, "I wish you didn't have to go back so soon. Can't you stay a couple of days longer?"

"Afraid not, my plane leaves in an hour." Scott didn't want to let them know that he had actually flown to New York and back rather than staying locally for the couple of days since they had met.

"But you'll call and visit sometime right?" Dawn asked hopefully.

"You bet I will! I just found you, I don't ever intend on loosing you again," he said to Dawn, but made it seem like he meant the whole family.

"Yay!" Dawn tossed herself at Scott like she'd done before and he hugged her tightly, parental feelings of 'need to protect her' washed over him and for a moment he thought he should tell her he was really her father.

Wisely, though, Scott decided to keep the secret, since according to the professor, Buffy and her family didn't even know she was a construct. They knew nothing about the Key, and from what Xavier had said, it was really better off that they didn't know yet. Eventually Scott let Dawn go reluctantly, "If you need anything, any of you, you give me a call okay? I'll come right over in a flash, even if I have to fly my own plane to get here."

They all agreed they would call if there was trouble, as well as call just to keep in touch, to let him know he had family and didn't have to be alone anymore, then each gave him good-bye hugs, even Buffy who had been so very suspicious of him. Willow had found out everything that she could about Scott and it just seemed like he was a good, if lonely, man. Joyce then led him head out of the house, but hopefully not out of their lives.

The End