AN: This chapter is supposed to take place in season 5 sometime after Dawn's arrival, probably shortly after the episode "The Family".

Aven found herself enjoying the simple things in life as a kitten. She liked batting around the silly catnip toys Willow gave her, and getting scratched behind the ears. She even enjoyed the occasional nap on Tara's lap, though she was fairly certain Willow would get jealous even though she was just a cat. She was pretty sure that at one point she heard Willow complain half-jokingly that Ms. Kitty Fantastico was in her spot. Tara had giggled in response. All in all life as a kitten with a couple of witches wasn't so bad. There was no wondering when her next meal would be, and sleeping in a card-board box was somehow more enjoyable. The best part was that she felt she was part of the love shared by Willow and Tara. She wondered what their response would be if they knew the truth about her; that she was really the human child they had once referred to as a street urchin. They probably wouldn't be able to keep her. It's totally different taking care of a human child rather than a kitten.

"I wonder what that kitty thinks about," Willow stated, as she lay with her head in Tara's lap. "Doesn't she look like she's day dreaming sometimes?"

Aven perked her ears, knowing they were talking about her. Tara regarded the kitten while running her fingers through Willow's hair. "You probably don't want to know. I bet it involves dead animals," she responded frankly.

"Gross!" Willow turned upward and made a face, but Tara thought it was cute and kissed her. Aven purred in approval of the display of affection.

There was a firm knock at the door. Aven scurried under the bed. "Who comes here besides me?" Willow questioned Tara. Tara shrugged.

"Police!"

"Police?" Willow silently mouthed while displaying a look of confusion to the blond as she got up to answer the door.

"Is- Is there something wrong, o-officer?" Tara nervously asked the officer.

"I'm officer Davidson and I just had some questions for you," he stated assertively.

"Oh. W- Would you like to come in?"

"Sure," he stepped in as Tara closed the door behind him. He pulled out a picture. "Do you know this girl?" he asked abruptly.

Tara and Willow looked at the picture and immediately recognized the face; deep blue eyes, short brown hair. It was clearly Aven, though she looked healthier and maybe younger in the picture than she did when they had seen her.

"Yes, that's Aven." Willow replied.

"Yes, Aven Glen is her name". The officer stated. "I heard that she recently stole some items from a shop that you visit frequently."

"Yes, that's right...um...about a week or two ago," Tara confirmed.

"And you did not report this to the police?" He inquired in an adverse tone.

"Well, we- we weren't at the shop at- at the time it was robbed." Tara corrected.

"Yes, we just found her later in an alley by The Bronze and noticed that the missing items were near by." Willow elaborated. She wasn't happy with the tone this police officer was using.

"Oh, you just... found her?" He restated sceptically.

Tara and Willow were not about to tell him about their spell. "Yeah, you know, heading to the club for a night out dancing and such...saw a girl in the alley...took a look to make sure she wasn't lost..." Willow tried to lie. It sounded plausible...maybe, she thought to herself.

Tara gave her an approving nod. "Yeah, we just wanted to make sure she was okay, and then we saw the box, and how unkempt she was".

"We called CPS the next day after she returned the stolen items" Willow added.

"Yeah, lot of good that did." the officer muttered under his breath sarcastically.

Tara narrowed her eyes in confusion. "Um, are we being accused of something here?" She asked, getting more assertive.

As though realizing he made a mistake his demeanor changed entirely. "No, not at all." he smiled charmingly. "Have you seen Aven Glen since she was turned over to CPS." He asked nicely.

"No," Tara answered, "I thought she was going into foster care."

"Yes, she was placed with a foster family," the officer asserted, "But her foster parents reported her missing a few days ago."

"What?" Willow responded, concerned for the child.

"Oh no." Tara stated simultaneously.

"We thought she may have returned to the shop or tried to get in contact with the people she had recently met there".

"Well, we haven't seen her," Willow stated sadly.

"If you do please let me know". He provided them with business cards.

"We definitely will." Willow told him.

Tara sat in silence. When Officer Davidson left Willow put her arm around the blond. "I'm sure she's okay," She tried to comfort her. "She's pretty independent".

Tara melted into the embrace. "Yeah, I was just hoping she'd be placed with a nice family and live happily ever after, you know?"

"Yeah, I know." Willow affirmed as she noticed Ms. Kitty Fantastico sneak out from under the bed. She swooped the small kitten in to her hands. "Awe, were you hiding?" Willow asked the kitten as she played with her. "Did the big mean police officer scare you?" She cuddled the cat. "It's okay now, he's gone".

Aven felt comforted by Willow's words even though the red-head had no idea how true they were.

XXXXX

Later on in the day Willow and Tara went to the Magic Box to meet up with the "Scooby Gang". They decided to bring Ms. Kitty Fantastico with them to show off their kitten. As they entered they saw a couple of police officers at the shop as well. They were interviewing Anya, Buffy, and Giles.

"Were they involved with the child as well?" The shorter dark skinned female cop asked.

"Yes, they were the two that found her with Buffy," Giles answered politely.

"Then we have a few questions for you as well." The taller fair skinned male cop stated.

Willow and Tara sat at the table. "Okay, but Officer Davidson already interrogated us," Willow stated.

"Officer Davidson?" the woman officer asked, "He shouldn't be working this case." She looked at her partner.

"Clearly he's very concerned for his niece," the male officer responded, speaking softly to the female hoping that no one else would hear. "We'll have to see if he got any leads and then remind him to let us do our job."

The female nodded in agreement. It wasn't long before they decided that the group in the shop didn't have any useful information for them. They left also providing business cards in case the gang did see the girl.

"This is rather disconcerting," Giles commented as he took a sip of tea.

"We thought so too." Willow stated. "We were thinking of returning to that alley to see if she went back there later this evening. The police probably have been keeping an eye there, but..."

"Yeah, we all know how stupid Sunnydale cops can be." Buffy finished.

"So you want to come with us?" Willow asked the Slayer.

"Sure, we can do it during patrol."

"I can kitty-sit!" Dawn volunteered nearly beaming.

Tara smiled, glad to see the teen. "Where did you come from?" she asked as she placed the kitten into Dawns eager hands.

"I was in the back practicing with the cross-bow," she whispered to Tara, in hopes that Buffy wouldn't here. "Awe! She's so cute!" She cooed at the kitten. "Are you ever going to give her a real name?"

"Hey!" Willow teased, "What's wrong with Ms. Kitty Fantastico?"

"Um...nothing?" Dawn said, giving a goofy grin.

XXXXX

Aven happily pawed at the piece of string Dawn was dangling in-front of her. Dawn giggled at the kitten's playful antics. They were in the living room of the Summers' house. Aven felt guilty for putting the women through so much trouble. They were after all trying to find her while she had been in front of them the entire time. She wished there was a way to communicate with them, but at the same time feared that they would inform the police of her location if she were to be able to. She couldn't let that happen. She couldn't let her uncle find her.

Joyce came into the living room with a cup of hot cocoa for her daughter. "What's this doing out?" the mother asked looking at a cross-bow on the coffee table. "You shouldn't be playing with Buffy's...toys," She scolded Dawn.

"I wanted to train with it later," the teen whined, "You know, after I do homework".

Joyce looked skeptically at the scene of her daughter playing with a kitten. "You don't look like your doing homework," she stated.

"Yeah, I'm waiting for Chris," Dawn responded, "We were going to study together for the algebra exam."

"Oh, Chris?"

"Chris Burman." Dawn answered as though it should be obvious. "Cute guy. Math genius. I talk about him, like, all the time!" she stated irritably. "Or at least for the past week I have," she added awkwardly.

"Right. Chris Burman." Joyce nodded pretending she knew who her daughter's current silly junior high crush was.
"Is he coming soon? I can make more hot cocoa for him," she offered.

"No, that's okay, I'd really rather you be..."

"Otherwise engaged so that I don't embarrass you?"

"Um...yeah."

"Okay." Joyce agreed "I trust you, just... don't do anything Buffy wouldn't do." she stated. Then she recalled that Buffy had apparently been doing all sorts of wacky stuff behind her back when she was in high school. Kissing vampires for example. "You know what, forget I said that," Joyce changed her mind as she got up, "Don't do anything Willow wouldn't do. I'll be upstairs, call if you need anything."

"Okay," Dawn laughed, "Thanks Mom".

There was a knock on the door. Dawn eagerly answered it. "Hey Chris," she stated.

"Hey," answered an attractive boy in a letter-man jacket. "Shall I come in?"

"Yeah, come in." She smiled at him.

The two teens went to the couch in the living room. Aven sniffed the newcomer. She didn't like his scent. She perched herself on the coffee table. "Hey, cute kitten," the boy stated. He reached to pet her. She hissed at him.

"Be nice, Ms. Kitty Fantastico," Dawn scolded.

"Ms. Kitty Fantastico?" Chris asked, indicating he thought the name was strange.

"Yeah, she's my friends' kitten. They like silly names." Dawn explained, trying to sound cool. "I'm just pet-sitting."

Chris nodded in understanding.

They opened their text books in an attempt to appear to be working. The kitten continued to keep vigilance. "I don't understand problem number twenty eight." Dawn started. "How are we supposed to find x?"

Chris leaned over her shoulder to try to look at her work on the problem. "It looks like you're doing fine." He stated "You just wrote five where there's really a three in the problem". He reached over to point at the mistake. Dawn felt his hand graze her's as he did so. It left her a little breathless.

"Oh," she giggled. "Yeah, now It makes a lot more sense." she realized out loud. She secretly hoped for more contact; like a kiss. Yeah, a kiss would be nice, she thought. "Math is so boring," Dawn stated, dramatically rolling her eyebrows and sighing.

Chris regarded her. "We could do something more exciting," he responded, "Like...history".

Dawn giggled again.

"No history then?" He stretched his arms showing off his lengthy body. "Hmm, what else is there to do." and as he let his arms back down one of them ended up around Dawn's shoulder. Dawn gazed at him innocently, then shyly looked away. She could feel her heartbeat racing.

The boy reached for her cheek with his other hand, turned her face toward him, and leaned in. She closed her eyes. Her lips met his with a brief something she thought was a spark.

Aven saw the kiss and felt nauseated. She also saw when the boy's face changed. The kitten pounced onto his shoulder and bit his ear lobe as viciously as she could. He yelled and stood up from the sofa and tried to shake the angry kitten off of him. Aven scratched and clawed to hang on, still biting his ear.

Dawn opened her eyes startled by the initial yell. She saw his face and screamed. She jumped up from the sofa as well. She nervously grabbed the cross-bow, which luckily was still on the coffee table. She backed away from the furious vampire. She aimed, but felt nervous. She didn't have much practice with the weapon. She shot once. No dust. She shot again. Still no dust. She tried to concentrate to shoot one more time. Dust! She sighed with relief.

Joyce came running down the stairs. "What happened?" She asked, a little panicked. She had heard some yelling and crashing noises and was concerned for her daughter. She was able to calm herself a little when she saw the teen in one piece.

"Chrr-is, Chris...he ...was a vampire," Dawn explained still a little in shock. She ran up and hugged her mother seeking comfort before exclaiming pitifully "Why do boys suck?"

"Awe," Joyce wrapped her arms around her daughter and rubbed her back to be more consoling, "I'm sure Willow and Tara would be happy to discuss that further with you." the mother stated, trying to lighten the mood. They heard some distressed mewing and looked around the other side of the coffee table. They saw the dark kitten bleeding on the floor, an arrow stuck in one of her hind legs.

"Oh, no," Joyce said heartbroken for the wounded young animal. She picked up Ms. Kitty Fantastico and cradled the kitten in her hands.

"Oh God! Willow and Tara are going to kill me!" Dawn started freaking out.

"Dawn, don't panic," Joyce stated calmly. "I need you to go get some bandages".

Joyce attempted to bandage the wound as best she could, working around the lodged arrow. The small kitten had fainted, probably due to pain or blood loss. Either way she needed veterinary assistance promptly. She handed Ms. Kitty Fantastico to Dawn who cradled her gently.

"Let's go to the car," Joyce guided her crying daughter. They headed towards the nearest vet.