Buffy winced at a sore muscle as she pushed to front door open. She and Angel had been spending more and more time at her old house ever since her mother started getting sick. She closed the door quietly and looked around. There was no one to be seen.

"Buffy? Is that you?" Angel appeared from the direction of the kitchen. He took one look at her and hurried to support her. "Damn it! I knew I should have gone with you. What happened?"

She let him help her sit down on the sofa. "Where's Mom and Dawn?" she asked apprehensively.

He crouched in front of her. "Your mother's asleep and Dawn's out with friends."

Buffy's eyes flew open in horror. "No! We have to go find her!"

"Buffy, I'm sure Dawn's safe," Angel soothed, examining the bruise forming around Buffy's throat. "She knows better than to go anywhere alone at night. Now tell me what happened."

Tears pooled in Buffy's eyes. "I had a really crappy day," she said. "The spell to see who's hurting Mom didn't work, I got my butt kicked by some tramp in stilettos, and Dawn's not my sister."

Angel stared at her. "Dawn's not your sister?" he asked, puzzled. "Buffy, what are you talking about?"

"All of my memories of her, Mom and Dad bringing her home from the hospital, her first day of school, God, even the time she first met you, it's all fake. None of it's real." Buffy dashed the tears away angrily. "She's the Key, Angel. Energy. Used to open portals to different dimensions and the bitch queen wants her."

"Slow down, beloved. You're not making any sense."

Buffy took a few deep breaths and looked directly into Angel's confused, brown eyes. "I went to investigate the warehouse where I found the shiny orb thingy. Found a monk tied to a chair and a woman with a major attitude. She wiped the floor with my face. I managed to get out with the monk and the building collapsed. The monk told me they had taken the Key, the energy, and gave it human form. Gave it to me. As Dawn." Buffy put her face in her hands. "I don't know what to do."

Angel sat back on his heels, completely stunned. "You're sure he told you the truth?" he asked after a minute.

Buffy looked up at him. "He was dying, Angel. Why would he lie?"

He reached out and took both of her hands. "I don't know. What I do know is that you need a hot bath and a good night's rest. We'll talk to Giles in the morning."

"She's trying to get Dawn," Buffy told him, her voice intense. "I'm not going to let her get Dawn."

"Of course not," Angel assured her. "While you get some sleep, I'll go to the Bronze and bring her home myself, okay?"

Buffy nodded, too tired to argue. "Okay." Angel kissed her forehead.

"We'll be back soon." He got up and grabbed his coat from where it hung by the door. Before he left, he paused. "Buffy, I love you," he called softly. She smiled tightly.

"Love you, too."

*****

If Dru saw him right now, she'd probably faint. Or laugh. Because William the Bloody, known as of late as Spike, was tutoring a fourteen-year-old in history. Spike could blame it on the sodding chip, but he had always tried to be honest with himself. The real reason was that he honestly, actually cared about Dawn. The poor thing was the Slayer's sister, for hell's sake. Always having to look at Buffy and know she'd never be that good, well, it pulled at the strings of Spike's unbeating heart.

Not to say he'd gone soft. He was still a big bad. Sure, he was violent towards demons now rather than humans, but that was hardly his fault.

"Urgh!" Dawn suddenly exclaimed, pushing her textbook away from her. "Why should I care what caused the Boxer Rebellion? It didn't even happen in America."

"I was there, you know," Spike said, flipping through the pages of the volume.

"At the Boxer Rebellion?" Dawn asked, looking more interested.

"Yeah," Spike said with a smirk. "Me, Dru, Angelus, and Darla. Big happy family."

"What was it like?" Dawn demanded. "Was it exciting?"

"Killed my first Slayer," Spike said proudly, and then realized that might not go over too well. "It was a long time ago," he said quickly. "Things change."

Dawn gave him a funny look. "Spike, I know that you killed two Slayers and all that. You even tried to hurt my mom on parent teacher night."

"Hey, I would never do anything to hurt your Mum," Spike said defensively. "Joyce is a nice lady. I like her."

"I know," Dawn insisted. "I know that you're different now. You're…nice. A nice vampire."

Spike clenched his fists. "There's no such thing as a nice vampire, bit," he said coldly. "Just those that don't bite." The thought of a vampire—or anything, for that matter—taking advantage of Dawn's trusting nature made him want to kill something. Slowly.

He took an unnecessary breath and forced himself to calm down. "There's bad things out there, pet," he said intensely. "And I'm one of them. Don't ever forget that."

"But you wouldn't hurt me," Dawn said, though she sounded a little unsure of herself. "Or Buffy, or the others. Would you?"

"I'm a vampire. Hurting is what I do. It's what I live for," Spike seethed. "Don't you get it? Buffy's the Slayer, Dawn. If it weren't for the bloody chip, I'd have no choice but to try and hurt her."

Dawn cringed away from him, her eyes wide with fear and hurt. Spike shoved away from the table, torn between old instinct and new feelings. "Sodding hell," he spat, and whirled away, shoving through the crowd. What was he thinking, hanging around the Slayer's kid sister? He was nothing but a monster, frightening children. He fled into the night, still berating himself.

*****

Angel found Dawn a few minutes later, still looking shaken. "Dawn?" he asked, too preoccupied to notice. "Come on, we're going home."

She didn't demand to know why. She didn't ask what was wrong. Her thoughts were all a-whirl, trying to figure out why Spike had yelled at her, why he had said those things. Did he not like her anymore? Tears sprang to her eyes at the thought. If Spike didn't like her, then she didn't have any friends at all.

She gathered her books and numbly followed as Angel led her outside and to his convertible. Neither of them spoke on the drive home.