in an attempt to finish all my stories I'm going back to some old ones... no promises but wish me luck? LOL

disclaimer: see chapter 1

not betaed. I'm tired and going to bed, so you shall have to deal for the time being LOL. If anything is really bad, lemme know.

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Chapter 3

"Him?"

"No."

"Him?"

"No."

"Her?"

"No."

"Him?"

"No."

Dawn let out a huge huff as she sat in the backstage area, eying everyone that walked by. "Can we talk to anyone back here?"

Hunter looked around before pointing out someone. "Him, you can talk to him."

The teen looked to where he was pointing before pouting and crossing her arms. "He's just some stagehand."

"Exactly."

"I want to talk to someone famous."

"You're talking to me." He reminded her.

"You don't count. I want to talk to someone else!"

"Like who?" Hunter asked.

Dawn smiled. "Do you know Shawn Michaels? Spike would say he was the best wrestler ever."

Hunter scowled at her before looking at his daughter. "Is she for real?"

"Why?" Buffy asked, "Because Spike doesn't think you're the best because really, his opinion shouldn't really matter, at all. Ever."

"Good, I don't like this Spike guy."

Buffy turned to glare at her little sister. "What did you tell him about Spike?"

"Just that he loooovvveesss you." Dawn replied with a grin.

"Just, no. A world of no." Buffy rolled her eyes, thinking of Spikes infatuation with her.

"So, do you know him?" Dawn turned her big blue eyes back to her "uncle" Hunter.

"Yes." The wrestler growled. "And no, you can't talk to him."

The teen let out a noise of frustration, "you are being so unfair. Buffy." She pleaded with her older sister.

The Slayer shook her head. "Nuh-uh, here you follow Uncle Hunter's rules."

"So lame." Dawn muttered as she slumped down in her chair.

"Um, Mister-mister Hel-Helmsley?"

"What?" Triple H growled.

"You're so mean." Dawn told him.

He glared at her before turning back to the stagehand.

"Mr. McMahon wants to see you immediately. He asked that you bring your guests."

Standing up, Hunter threw down his towel with another growl, he knew exactly what Vince was playing at.

"Do you do anything else?" Dawn asked.

He turned to Buffy. "Can we gag her?"

"It's tempting, huh?" the tiny slayer asked with a faint smile.

"I can hear you." Dawn muttered.

"we know." Buffy and Hunter replied at the same time before looking at each other with a small smile on their faces.

"That was creepy." Dawn said, "You guys almost looked alike when you did that."

Buffy looked away from her little sister. "Didn't you have to go talk to someone?"

Hunter nodded. "Let's go. Stick by me, don't talk to anyone, most importantly don't talk to Vince."

Buffy shrugged, motioning for her sister to follow Hunter. He led the way down the hall, preoccupied with his daughter. Sure, he didn't know her well or see her pretty much at all but he knew his daughter well enough to know that this quiet, almost over agreeable young woman was not really her. She was as headstrong and stubborn as he was, that much he knew. Granted, he knew her mother had just died but it seemed as though the light had gone out from her and he knew there was something else that had helped snuff that out.

"are you just going to stand there and scowl at the door?" Dawn's voice broke through his thoughts and he sent her a glare before knocking on the door and entering without waiting for an invite.

"Ah, Hunter, so good of you to finally join us." Vince said, standing up from behind his desk.

"What do you want?" The tall blonde wrestler growled.

"To see what exactly had you cancelling all your appearances last week." He tried to peer around the bigger man but Hunter only puffed himself out more in an attempt to hide the petite girls.

"I told you, I had to go see my nieces."

"Actually." Vince reminded him. "you said you had to go visit your da-"

"My nieces." Hunter snapped, interrupting him and shooting him a warning glare. "their Mom died, they needed me."

"And they're absolutely adorable."

Hunter closed his eyes at the voice. He recognized that voice anywhere, it still haunted him in his sleep and he couldn't believe he had completely missed her being in the room. Something about her presence always made him hyper aware that she was there but this time he had been completely oblivious, too distracted with his current situation.

"What are you doing here?" He managed to grind out.

"Well Daddy mentioned you had a family emergency and that you were bringing said family on the road. Naturally I was quite curious, I mean, as far as I knew, you didn't have any family."

Now he turned to glare at her. "Like I was about to torture them by introducing them to you."

Stephanie McMahon raised a perfectly sculpted eyebrow. "Now, Hunter, in case you forgot, you didn't always hate me."

"That was before I realized what an evil conniving bitch you were."

"Um, am I better off taking my sister outside?" Buffy asked, interrupting them.

"No." Hunter growled. "You are to stay near me."

"Buffy can protect us." Dawn whined. "She's stronger than she looks."

"Buffy?" Stephanie asked.

"Yes." The blonde slayer coolly replied. "My mother named me."

"Is it short for something? I mean, Buffy?"

"Can you leave them alone please?" Hunter bit out. "And tell me why the hell you called me here."

"Basically to see if you were telling the truth." Vince told him. "You don't have family Hunter. In your contract there is no next of kin. You were married to my daughter and no one has ever met or seen anyone from your family. Naturally, we were quite curious."

"ooohhh, you married the bosses daughter." Dawn whispered, stepping out from slightly behind the wrestler to get a better look at the two other occupants of the room.

"Oh, you are absolutely adorable." Stephanie all but cooed. "What's your name sweetheart."

The teen with the big blue eyes broke out into a big grin. "I'm Dawn, Dawn summers."

"Are you enjoying your time here."

She shrugged. "Not so much, Hu-Uncle Hunter wo't let us do much. He says we can't talk to anyone."

"That's because your uncle doesn't like anyone. Perhaps we shall see if we can rectify the situation and get him to loosen up a bit, huh?" Stephanie asked with a smile and a wink at the teen, who responded with a big grin.

"Butt out." Hunter hissed. "These girls are to be left alone by you, by Vince, and by everyone, understood?"

Buffy finally stepped forward to place a calming hand on her dad's arm. "It's fine, we can take care of ourselves."

"Any thoughts on following in your Uncle's footsteps?" Vince asked, seeing the small young woman for the first time and noting a quiet strength and fierceness in her.

"Enough." Hunter roared. "Buffy, Dawn, outside, we're leaving." He ushered the girls out of the office, glaring at the two McMahons as he did so.

They had only turned the corner down the hall when Stephanie called out to him.

"Can we talk for a minute?"

He sighed and rolled his eyes turning to the two girls. "Don't go anywhere." He told them, walking over to Stephanie and following her back around the corner.

"What?" He snarled.

Stephanie rolled her eyes, crossing her arms under her chest. "Don't get all huffy on me Hunter. You don't have a sister, I know that for a fact so what's going on?"

He sighed, running a hand through his hair. "I can't talk about it."

"Hunter, you can talk about, tell me."

He shook his head. "If this gets out, they could get hurt, Buffy's sister will freak out, I can't risk it."

"Then let me help you." Stephanie begged. "I can help."

Another sigh. "Buffy's my daughter."

There was silence and he looked at her to see shock written plainly on her face. "You have a daughter? How did I not know this."

"No one does. No, shawn does but that's it and no one can ever know."

"When? She looks like- you would have had to have her when you were- Explain."

"I was 16, I was hanging at a college party, I was drunk, I met Joyce, 9 months later Buffy showed up. I was young, she was married by then, we decided to let her husband believe Buffy was his, there was no way I could look after her. Then Buffy found out about me when she was 16."

"What are they doing here?" Stephanie asked, still looking shell shocked.

"Their mom died, they had nowhere else to go." Admittedly, he still didn't know the full story but he wasn't about to tell her that.

"Wow." She breathed. "What's the big deal if people know if she's your kid or your niece? That won't make a difference to people who want to get to you."

Hunter sighed. "Dawn doesn't know."

"Know what?"

"That I'm Buffy's dad, that they're half-sister and she doesn't want to tell her with everything that's going on."

He looked at his ex wife closely who was staring off into space before she finally nodded. "I'll help, however I can. God knows they'll need a female influence in their life."

Hunter rolled his eyes btu allowed a small smile to grace his features. "Thank you."

"Now can I meet them properly?" She asked.

He nodded, leading the way down the hall. "Yes, I told them to stay-" He stopped seeing that the place he had left the girls was now empty.

"Oh crap." He muttered.

… … …