Chapter 2: Real Me Pt 2

Giles was driving a brand new red sports coupe as he talked to Buffy who was looking at her book list. They were trying to distract themselves from the possibility that Dawn was either seeking attention or telling the truth. Both possibilities were freaking the both of them out. On the one hand if Dawn was seeking attention they knew that it meant Buffy would need to pay more attention to her. But if Dawn had told them the truth that he was Thomas Andrews in Dawn's body then that would mean that she might know what was happening.

"Lotta books on this shopping list you gave me. Any of them come on tape? You know, read by George Clooney or somebody cute like that?" said Buffy.

Giles sighed. "We're entering a whole new realm here, Buffy. One for which even I, myself, am not entirely prepared. Are you ready for this commitment?"

"I was kidding. This Betty's ready. Color me committed," said Buffy.

Giles reached down and shifted the automatic transmission into neutral. "Blast!"

"Put it in neutral again, huh," said Buffy.

Giles sighed as he glanced at Buffy. "Not accustomed to automatic transmissions. I loathe this… Just sitting here, not contributing. No. No, this just isn't working out."

"Giles, are you breaking up with your car?" Buffy asked.

"Well, the damn thing did seduce me. All red and sporty." Giles said.

"Little two-door tramp." Buffy and Tom said together and then they laughed.

Buffy looked over the back seat at Tom and sighed. She so hoped that her sister was simply seeking attention.

Giles sighed wearily. "I don't know … I've been so at loose ends. Searching for something to make me feel …"

"Shallow?" asked Buffy.

Giles glared for a fleeting second at Buffy. "Perhaps, as I am going to act as your watcher again, a modicum of respect might be appropriate …"

"Do I hafta?" asked Buffy.

Giles sighed. "I'm actually serious, Buffy. There's going to be far less time for the sort of flighty, frivolous—"

Tom suddenly pointed out the window as he saw Willow and Tara exiting a coffee shop. "Hey, there's Willow and Tara!" she said, excitedly.

Giles smiled. "Oo, they haven't seen my new car." He honked the car as he pulled it over at the curb next to Willow and Tara.

"Wow. Sharp wheels, Giles." Willow said as she looked over the car.

"The rest of the car's nice, too." Tara agreed as Buffy and Tom got out.

"Thank you. Handles like a dream." Giles smiled as Tom rolled his eyes.

"Where you two headed?" Buffy asked.

"Magic shop. Had some charms on back order." Willow said as Tom walked over to her.

"Willow, hi!" Tom said.

Willow turned and hugged Tom. "Hey, Miss Dawnie. How's my favorite chess partner? Still leading with your knight?"

"I think so." Tom said. Truth be told he didn't remember. He didn't remember if there had ever been a chess game between Willow and her on the TV show. Though he doubted there had been.

"Hey, Dawn." Tara said as Dawn stepped in line beside her.

Tom looked at Tara as he tried to remember something, something important. Something with Tara but he couldn't remember exactly what.

"Giles and I figured out a schedule around school. A block of time every day to just focus on my new Slayer training." Buffy said as she and Willow led the small group toward the magic shop.

Willow gasped in surprise as she looked toward her best friend. "That's a work ethic! Buffy, you're developing a work ethic!"

"Do they make an ointment for that?" Buffy asked as Tom rolled his eyes.

"People gotta respect a solid work ethic." Willow said. "Look at you. Motivated Buffy, eager to soak up learning … You and I are going to have so much fun this semester."

"Yeah …" Buffy said as she remembered she would have to drop a class, "… that reminds me. With the whole training schedule, I kinda had to drop a class…" Buffy said.

"That's understandable." Willow nodded. "Your slayer studies are way more important."

"So I won't be taking Drama with you." Buffy said as Willow looked at her obviously, stung.

"What?!" Willow said. "You have to. You promised!"

Buffy sighed. "I know, Will, but Giles was saying—"

"The hell with Giles!" interrupted Willow.

"I can hear you, Willow." Giles said with a tone of irritation.

"Drama's just Tuesday and Thursday afternoons," said Willow as she ignored the man. "You can blow off training Tuesday and Thursday afternoons, can't you?"

"What happened to 'people gotta respect a work ethic?'" Buffy questioned her friend about the whole reversal.

"Other people," said Willow as they walked up to the door. "Not me. There's a whole best friend loophole."

"Shop's kinda dark. Maybe it's closed." Tara said as she peered into the front window of the store.

Giles looked to Tom for a moment as he opened the door and they entered. Buffy looked at Tom also then at the interior of the shop. They could see that it had been ransacked. Books, spell ingredients and knickknacks had been pulled from the shelves. A glass case had also been smashed. "Hello? Is anyone here?" Giles asked as they moved into the shop.

"Mr. Bogarty!" Tara said as Giles and Buffy looked at her, quizzically. "The owner. I'm in here a lot."

"Maybe this happened really late …" Willow said as she wandered near the counter.

"Willow." Tom said as he looked at the body on the floor near Willow's feet. "Be careful you're about to trip over Mr. Bogarty."

Willow stopped and looked down at Mr. Bogarty. "Thanks, Dawnie."

"If you look at his neck, wrists and arms you will find he has been bitten by multiple vampires." Tom said.

Buffy moved over to examine the body and she could see Tom was right. "Judging by the bite fest I'd say Dawn is right there was more than one vampire."

Buffy sighed as she looked over at her sister. Well it looked like Dawn was right that she was indeed a guy trapped in her sister's body. She wondered what had happened to her sister's soul now that Tom inhabited the body.

"How did you know that?" Willow asked noting that Tom was still over by the door and too far away to see the puncture marks.

"Uh…" Buffy started unsure how to explain Tom.

"I've been having visions." Tom said, sensing Buffy's hesitation in coming up with an explanation. "I had one just as we walked in. Several vampires killed him."

"What else did you see?" Buffy asked playing along with Tom's fictitious vision.

"I see a book, missing. And a unicorn statue." Tom said.

Buffy looked to Willow who nodded and moved around the counter. Tom walked up to Buffy and whispered in her ear. "If I were outside right now. A crazy person would come up to me and mutter some crazy stuff."

Buffy nodded and moved toward the window and looked out through the blinds as a man passed by. Her Slayer hearing picked up on his mutterings, something about him being a cat. She turned back to look at Tom and sighed. Everything he had said so far had come true. While this was her little sister, at the same time this was a person who knew, maybe not everything, but quite a bit about her life. A life that she had yet to live.

"I've cross-checked the inventory and Dawn's right some books were definitely taken. Including one called 'A Treatise on the Mythology and Methodology of Vampire Slayers,'" said Willow as she looked over the records.

Giles took the binder from Willow and perused its pages. "Whoever's leading this pack of vampires appears to be interested in learning more about you. Perhaps searching for weaknesses or—" he said as he noticed the sales figures. "Good lord …"

"What? What is it?!" Buffy asked.

"I had no idea the profit margin for a shop like this could be so high," Giles said as Buffy and Willow shared a look. "I mean, look at this … Low overhead, Out-of-State orders, International … No wonder there's never any trouble attracting new owners. This place is a virtual—"

"Deathtrap?" Buffy asked.

Giles looked up at Buffy. "Hmm?" he said taking a moment to process what she had just said. "Well, yes. Yes, there is that. Still, the location, in terms of pedestrian traffic …"

"So what's the next step?" Willow asked.

"Buffy I think you should begin an immediate search for their lair." Giles suggested.

Buffy nodded in agreement. "I'll get Dawn and Riley to join me."

"Buffy?" Willow said, shocked that Buffy would even think of taking Dawn along. "Your taking Dawn?"

Buffy looked to Tom and sighed. She didn't like it but so far Tom had been right on everything. "Her visions could be useful even if I'm hesitant to include her."

"Your mom is going to freak though." Willow said.

"Impressive square footage …" Giles said as he scrutinized the broken glass case. "And I'll bet the death rate keeps the rent down–oh. Something's been taken from this case." He pointed to a vacant pedestal. "See here?"

"What did they take?" Buffy asked.

"Perhaps an item of great value. Or power. Possibly even—" Giles said.

"A unicorn." Willow said as she looked at the books again. "A ten-inch ceramic unicorn, imported from Thailand." She then looked at Tom. "Just like you said, Dawnie."

"Is that valuable?" Buffy asked as she looked at her sister who shrugged.

"List price: $12.95" Willow said after looking up the price.

"Which begs the question: what sort of unholy creature fancies cheap tasteless statuary?" Giles asked.

"Harmony." Dawn reminded Buffy and Giles who nodded.

"Harmony?" Willow asked.

"Harmony Kendell. She was in your graduating class, Willow. She was turned the day the Mayor ascended." Dawn said. "It's her minions that did this."

Buffy broke out into laughter. She still couldn't get over the fact that Harmony had minions.

Giles looked at Tom and then at Buffy. "Buffy a word," he said as Buffy moved over to him and he lowered his voice to a whisper. "I understand the tactical benefits of exploiting what Dawn knows, especially since she has proven so far that everything she has said has come true. But unlike yourself and Riley she has no training."

"I know." Buffy whispered. "While I hate doing it because she is my little sister. She like you said could be useful."

That evening Joyce was getting ready to leave for the Gurion showing at the gallery while Buffy tried to persuade her to allow her to take Dawn on patrol.

"So not only didn't you take your sister shopping for school supplies, you brought her to a murder scene." Joyce said as she walked over to her jewelry box on her dresser.

"I didn't bring her to it. It just sorta came upon us …" Buffy lied. Of course it hadn't come upon them. But she didn't know to broach the subject that Dawn used to be someone named Tom.

"I asked one favor of you, Buffy," said Joyce as she put on her earrings. "To keep an eye on your sister. And now you want to put her in more danger."

"Mom I can help Buffy." Tom said as he decided to give Joyce the fictitious vision story that he had told Willow and Tara earlier. "I'm having visions that could help Buffy. I could see something that could keep her alive. Wouldn't that be a good thing?"

"Visions?" Joyce asked.

Tom smiled at Joyce and nodded. "I'm seeing things from the future and even some things from the past. I can help her. Plus she's going to train me to defend myself. Please mom all I am doing is helping Buffy to live a long life to a ripe old age."

"I thought you didn't see that far ahead." Buffy asked, confused. She distinctly remembered Tom saying he only knew about what was in the TV show. And even then the memories were fleeting. So how could Tom be sure she would live to old age?

"I don't." Tom said as she looked at Buffy. "But it doesn't mean you won't live that long either with my help." Joyce sighed and looked between her daughters. She didn't like the situation one bit. "I'm sure, that you're not sure if you believe I am having visions, mom. There is one way for you to know for sure. Go see a doctor."

"What, why?" Buffy and Joyce asked.

"Mom you have a tumor." Tom said as he looked at Joyce, compassionately. "I have seen it. In a couple weeks or so you will start seeing the symptoms from it. Then you will have surgery and sometime after you get to come home you will die from an aneurysm. Please go see the doctor now before it gets even worse. Do it in L.A. though."

Joyce looked between Dawn and Buffy.

"Please, mom." Buffy said. "Just do as she asks."

Joyce sighed and nodded. "I'll call and make an appointment. Why L.A. though?"

"Just a safety precaution. I'd rather," said Tom, "be safe than sorry. I don't know for sure if the aneurysm was a result of something the doctor here did or just a coincidence."

"Okay," said Joyce as she looked at her daughter. "I'll find a doctor in L.A. tomorrow and make the appointment. Is there anything else you want to tell me Dawn like maybe if I am going to get remarried?"

"I'm sorry." Tom said. "Right now unless things change all I see is your death. It's all I know."

Buffy sighed and nodded at the way Tom had said know. "Mom you've got to be at the pre-showing Reception in half an hour, right?" She thought for everyone's sake it might be good to get off the topic of the tumor for now.

"You will make sure Dawn is safe, Buffy?" asked Joyce, concerned for her youngest daughter's safety.

"Yes, Mom." Buffy said as they watch Joyce leave the room. She then looked at her younger sister. "Why didn't you tell me, Tom?"

"You … you believe me?" asked Tom shocked.

"Kind of hard not to," said Buffy. "When everything so far you have said has come true. Which brings me back to why didn't you tell me about mom?"

Tom sighed, he had intended to tell Buffy before they said anything to Joyce. But events changed that. "I was going to. Before we said anything to her. But things changed. Everything from the moment I woke this morning has changed. Originally I was not going with you. I think the only time I actually ever patrolled with you was when you finally decided to start training me and that is two years from now. You were going to get Xander to come over and watch me. Which I am now thankful you didn't. Anya would have come with him. And Anya was always the most annoying character on the show."

Buffy nodded. "She can be annoying. I will grant you that."

"I wonder what Willow and Tara are talking about." Dawn said.

"Why?" Buffy asked, concerned for Willow.

"I think there was this whole conversation about me being not included in everything and my feeling left out and everything. Then they started talking about Tara being not included and feeling left out." Tom said.