When the Scoobies quickly opened the door to the back room, they were met by a sight that none of them were prepared for. Dawn was leaning against the wall, tears silently streaming down her face as she stared at her sister... who was on her knees in the middle of the room, a shocked look frozen on her face. For a moment they just stood in the doorway, unsure of what to say, especially since they had no clue what was going on.
After what seemed like hours to them, even though it had barely been five minutes, Buffy seemed to slip out of whatever spell she had been under. She blinked twice and then seemed to notice her friends standing in the doorway. The shocked look on her face slowly faded away and was replaced by a determined one.
Buffy took a deep breath as she pulled herself to her feet and walked over to her sister. "Come on," she said weakly. "Let's get home."
Dawn looked up at her sister with teary eyes and slowly nodded her head. She then took a shaky breath and glanced past her sister to the group standing in the doorway. For a moment she stood there staring, studying each of their faces.
It was obvious that Xander had no clue what was going on, and his wife didn't seem to be much better, considering the fact that they were wearing identical confused expressions on their faces. After mentally summing up what they knew, the teenager slowly turned her eyes towards Willow. The redhead was wearing a slightly puzzled look on her face, but it was obvious that she had a few guesses on what was going on... and they probably weren't that far off.
She then turned her gaze to Tara.
When she looked into the witch's eyes, Dawn felt her heart freeze for a moment. There was no mistaking the worried glint in her eyes. She knew.
Dawn took another shaky breath as she let her gaze catch Tara's. Without saying a word, she answered the question that was burning in the witch's eyes. As soon as she did, Tara quickly choked back a gasp. At the sound, the others quickly turned around to look at her.
The teenager quietly walked over to Buffy and looked her in the eyes. "Can we go home, Buffy?" she asked weakly. "Now? Spike knows everything, and I'm pretty sure that Tara's figure out most of it."
Buffy finally noticed just how much Dawn was trembling, and she quickly reached out to steady her. "Spike, tell them what's going on," she said firmly. "I'm taking Dawn home."
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As the door closed behind Buffy, Spike found himself quickly surrounded. Anya and Willow both stood in front of him with expectant looks on their faces, and Xander was trying his best to look threatening. The vampire merely raised an eyebrow. After a few moments passed without Spike telling them anything, Xander finally sighed.
"Are you going to tell us what's going on or not?" he asked, a combination of worry and irritation in his voice.
Before the blonde vampire had a chance to answer, Tara slowly walked past Xander and faced Spike. "Is she pregnant?" she asked matter-of-factly.
At that, Xander let out a short bark of laughter. "Yeah right. Dawn, pregnant? Like that would ever happen. She's just a little kid." He glanced over Spike. "So, what's really wrong?"
The laughter quickly died on his lips as Spike kept his mouth shut and looked away. His eyes widened in shock as he realized what the vampire was telling him. Willow's face was frozen, her eyes already widening in shock. Tara, meanwhile, was looking down at the ground.
Anya was the only one who didn't seem upset by the news. A pout was slowly forming on her lips as she turned to her husband. "This isn't fair. I'm the one who's married, so I should be the on who's pregnant. Why does she get to have a baby before us? Doesn't that seem a little unfair?"
As she noticed the looks the others were sending in her direction, she determinedly placed her hands on her hips.
"Why are you staring at me like that?" she asked. "What did I say?"
Ignoring Anya's question, Willow glanced back at Spike. "From two months ago?" she asked weakly. "Is that when she…"
He finally looked back at them. "Yeah," he acknowledged. "That's what she said, at least. She doesn't remember much about it, though."
"Was she raped?" Tara asked, her voice barely above a whisper.
At that, Anya blanched and most of the color drained from her face as she suddenly understood the others' reactions from a few minutes earlier. Xander reached over to gently squeeze her arm, but he didn't move his gaze from Spike. "Was she?" he asked, his own voice shaky.
"She doesn't think so," Spike said, looking away from them once again. "Like I said, though, she doesn't exactly remember much about that night."
No one said a word after that.
