Rebuilding

Ch 7 – Sunday, Day 6

"Anya," Dawn greeted her at the front door. "We had so much fun last night, you should have been here. Oh! And I used your strategy at Monopoly… totally won!" Dawn gave her a 'go-me, go-me' dance.

"Well, that's wonderful Dawn. Although I must insist that you don't use it when I play next time. I'm considering filing for a patent," Anya said distractedly as she breezed by her on the way to the kitchen. She wasn't looking forward to being here, but she'd picked today as the day… her bags were already in the trunk of her little, used Mazda.

Dawn rolled her eyes and followed.

It was about ten a.m. and everyone was at the Summers' household, but Giles. Spike was upstairs, presumably doing the deep-sleep thing. The others were in the kitchen, quietly sitting or standing at the island and eating waffles that Tara had whipped up. No one had said much of anything to that point.

"So… does anyone know if Giles is going to re-open the store," Anya asked after clearing her throat. She sort of needed to know about how long she had before she needed to return to Sunnydale.

"Worried about your job," Willow asked judgmentally.

"I wasn't thinking about that specifically but, well, I do still have bills," Anya stated. "I mean, I do need to work somewhere." As soon as I return, anyway, she thought

"I can't believe you're worried about that now!"

"Girls…," Xander tried to interrupt.

"Well I'm sorry that life didn't just stop because Buffy died! Not all of us can just crash here for free now, you know," Anya raised her voice. "It's been nearly a week and we all have to decide what we're doing next."

She'd always disliked Willow's 'holier than thou' attitude and since she was leaving anyway, there wasn't any reason to stop herself from pointing it out now.

"Girls…," Xander tried again seeing Dawn turn pale, her eyes wide with tears. He was growing angry at seeing Dawn upset… she'd just gotten to where she could laugh again. And she was still struggling to deal with her losses; it must seem to her like the only family she had left was trying to rip itself apart.

"You are so goddamned cold, Anya! I can't believe how selfish you can be," Willow glared, at the same time shrugging Tara's restraining hand off of her arm. "Buffy died for us and all you can think about is 'la-la-la, I don't care, time to make some money!'"

"For your information, Ms. Holier-Than-Thou, I was thinking about Giles' well being! He needs something to do or he'll just continue to lock himself into his apartment and drink himself to death!"

"Don't try to pretend this is about Giles," Willow yelled. "This is about what it's always about… Anya's bank account!"

"Girls, stop it," Xander shocked the room into silence by yelling as loud as he could. Both Anya and Willow stared at him wide-eyed.

Tara looked uncomfortable, while Willow and Anya continued to glare at one another. Dawn just looked from one to the other miserably before excusing herself and running out the back door.

"Nice, Anya," Willow said. "Way to go."

"Me?! I'm not the one yelling at people!"

"Will, honey, please… enough," Tara said.

"I'm just trying to figure out where we go from here," Anya nearly pleaded. "We can't just stand here like life isn't going to continue on. You have to come up with a plan of action. What about patrolling? Who's going to take care of Dawn and the household expenses while you and Tara are not earning any money, wasting all day in school?"

Willow opened her mouth, her face in a severe frown, but Xander pre-empted whatever she was going to say.

"We'll work it out. I have my check. You can file for unemployment until you find another job, Ahn. Giles will figure out something to take care of Dawn and the house… Mrs. Summers would have had life insurance, we just have to find out where that money is. Besides, wasn't the Council supposed to be offering a stipend… whatever happened to that?"

"Xander… I'm not staying. My bags are packed and in the car. I… I need time away."

"What? Anya… come on, w-we need to draw together now. This isn't the time to run away."

"I'm not running, Xander. I'm traveling. I will be back; I'll keep in touch and let you know where I'm at. As soon as Giles is ready to re-open the store, I'll be here. But I've got some money now, thanks to my investments, and I need to spend some time with me. Please try to understand."

"I'm going to go out and see to Dawn," Tara said quietly.

She directed to Willow as she passed, "If you and Anya can't get along long enough to give Dawn one quiet, civil breakfast, then maybe you should just leave the house right now as well!"

She turned to Anya, "Good luck, Ahn. Please let me know where you are so I can keep you updated."

Willow watched in surprise as Tara all but stomped out of the back door.

"She's right," Xander directed at both girls. "I'm going upstairs to see Spike. You two need to work out a way to be civil with one another before Dawn comes back in and before Anya leaves for… wherever."

"I didn't mean…" Willow started to say.

"… I don't care what you meant, Will," Xander threw over his shoulder. "You're both acting like five year olds and I don't have the patience for it. Anya… I don't want you to go. But… I do understand. After what Glory did to you… after Buffy… I get it. It's okay; you're always welcome here, though… please remember that."

oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

With the softest of knocks, Xander entered Dawn's bedroom. The shade was pulled down on the window, blocking out most of the dangerous sunlight. In addition, he saw that Spike had pulled a sheet up over his head and was lying completely covered and still. He turned around to leave, but Spike stopped him:

"I'm still awake. If the girls are upsetting Dawn, I'll kill 'em both."

"We've got it handled. I didn't mean to wake you," Xan nearly whispered.

Spike moved the sheet from over his head and looked at his man. Xander's eyes were haloed in dark circles, his mouth drawn down in a perpetual look of grief. He had bags, showing at the least one night of sleeplessness… not that that was a shock.

"You didn't wake me. My mind's full, thinking about how I can help the Bit get through this."

Spike's pale and bare torso nearly glowed in the ambient light of the room, the sheet now down around his waist. As Xan came further into the room, he closed the door behind him and began removing his shirt.

"What you doing," Spike asked.

"Crawling into bed with you," Xander answered as his shoes came off, followed by his unzipping his pants.

Spike simply watched him, a questioning look on his face. As Xander shoved his pants down and kicked them off followed by white sweat socks, leaving only his boxers, the vampire raised his eyes to meet his.

Xander gave him an embarrassed half-grin, but lifted Dawn's sheet and crawled in next to the vampire. When he'd gotten himself settled, he turned so that he faced Spike, who still lay on his back perfectly, supernaturally, still.

"You can touch me, you know," he said.

"I thought you weren't ready for… stuff," Spike said as he also finally turned onto his side to face the warm human body next to him.

Lying chest to chest, Xander allowed one hand to reach out and settle on Spike's hip. He was foolishly surprised to feel the cool bare flesh under his fingers. He'd forgotten that Spike apparently had never heard of underwear.

"I said I wasn't ready for everything. And that was before…. Let's just say I'm feeling a little more ready than before," Xan smiled before leaning into Spike and capturing his lips with his own.

"Xan," Spike whispered, his voice strained. "Don't start this if you're not sure."

Xan's fingers crept around from Spike's hip and down his waist until they touched his full erection. Wrapping a hand around Spike's hardness, he began to gently fist him forward and back.

"No more talking," he commanded with a smile. "Just kiss me."

oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Tara found Dawn sitting on the bench under the tree in the backyard. It was where she always went when she was upset and needed out of the house.

She took a seat near her and put her arm around Dawn's shoulder. "Those two," she said in frustration.

"I hate it when we fight with one another. I-I can't lose anyone else," Dawn said, wiping her eyes.

"It's not that serious, Sweetie. You know they just tend to rub each other the wrong way. Besides, Anya is going away for awhile. Not permanently," Tara added quickly as Dawn looked at her with surprise. "She just wants to see the country… try to deal with what Glory had done to her. She needs some time to heal."

"We all do. Shouldn't we be doing it together?"

"Oh, Honey. We all have to find our own way and Anya's is to spend some time alone with Anya. We have to give her that, don't we? And she promised that she isn't leaving for good… it's just a little vacation."

"Do you think," Dawn asked, "Do you think she'll really come back? It's weird, but even though she's not my favorite person, I still can't stand the idea of her not being part of our family."

"There's nothing weird about it. And yes, I'm sure she'll come home when she has her mind together again. Besides, she'd never allow Giles to run the new Magic Box without her!"

That had the effect she had hoped for as Dawn gave her a smirk, "No… there's no way she'd trust Giles with the money. I just," she grew quieter; "I just thought we were starting to be okay."

"We are, Dawn. Really. But we're going to have good days and bad days for awhile."

"That's what Xander told me."

"Xander is a smart guy. Now come on and finish breakfast," Tara stood up and gave Dawn her hand.

oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

When they'd re-entered the house, Anya was making a sandwich at the island. There was no sign of Willow.

Tara sighed, "Have you two made up?"

"Willow is very judgmental," Anya complained. "I'm going to make a few sandwiches for the road and then I'm going. Dawn? I'm sorry that I helped upset you. But everything I said is true; you all need to figure out what happens next."

"And we will," Tara said. "We have school tomorrow and Xander goes back to work. That's step one. I'll talk to Mr. Giles later about getting the Magic Box cleaned up, assuming he's going to re-open. I hope he does."

"Yes. I still plan on creating a Magic Box chain of shops," Anya nodded.

"I'm sorry to see you leave," Dawn said as she re-sat down while Tara placed her cold plate in the microwave.

"But Tara explained and I think I understand why you need some time away from Hellmouth Central."

"It's only for a little while," Anya told her.

Dawn only half-nodded, still not happy about it.

oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

End Chapter 7