Warnings: Swear words and mentions of past abuse. There really isn't much to worry about in this chapter.
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The Truth Comes Out
The next morning Spike woke up even more tired than he had been in the past year and a half. He didn't know why, because he slept all night through without waking up from any nightmares. His body was in a great deal of pain though and just the thought of moving was making it hurt even worse. Spike groaned as he rolled over onto his back. Angel was already awake at the first feeling of Spike waking up. He sat up and looked down at Spike with concern and worry in his eyes.
"You need blood."
Spike just gave a small weak nod as the pain kicked up a notch. Angel used his fangs to cut open his wrist for Spike before he placed it against Spike's mouth. Spike didn't even argue he just opened his mouth and let his fangs sink into the wrist and drank from it. After a few minutes Spike stopped and he licked the wound closed. Angel pulled his wrist back and he began to check over Spike's injuries. He was still very heavily injured, but he seemed to be finally healing some with his blood getting into him. It would still take weeks before he was back to full health and back into a good weight. He was at least on the road to recovery.
"Are you ok if I go downstairs and get some blood?"
"Ya go." Spike said trying to sound reassuring even though it came out weak and pain filled.
"I'll be right back." Angel said before he kissed Spike's forehead and got up and out of bed.
Angel put on a shirt and he headed out of the room and down the stairs. He went into the kitchen to get some blood warmed up for himself. He saw that everyone was in the kitchen getting breakfast themselves.
"How is he?" Cordelia asked right away.
"He's weak and in a lot of pain. It's going to take weeks before he is pain free." Angel answered as he opened the fridge to grab some blood to warm up.
"Physically. There is no telling how long it will take to heal mentally and emotionally from everything that has happened to him." Wesley said sympathetically.
"Did he say anything?" Fred asked.
"He begged me to kill him." Angel answered sadly.
"Seriously?" Cordelia asked shocked.
"He's a little better now I think. He knows I won't kill him. He has no choice, but to try and heal from it. He's done though. He can't take anymore. He's really worried about Dawnie though. He hasn't seen her in months she kept canceling on him. She doesn't even text him anymore. Did you get through to her yesterday?" Angel asked Cordelia.
"No the number doesn't even work anymore." Cordelia answered.
"Maybe one of us should drive up there and check it out for ourselves." Gunn suggested.
"Is there someone we could call that might know what has been going on?" Wesley asked.
"Tara might. I'll call and see if she knows anything. If not then one of us should go up there and see what has been happening." Angel said.
"I think it would be wise to gather all of the information we can on how Buffy has been lately." Wesley said.
"I'll call Tara and see if she knows anything if not Wesley you can go down and talk to the others."
Before anyone could say anything else the front door opened and they all looked at each other. They weren't expecting anyone, but it wasn't the first time a client came in this early in the morning. They all headed out of the kitchen and into the lobby to see Tara standing there by the door.
"Tara, we were just talking about calling you." Angel said calmly as he could tell she looked nervous.
"I um… I hope it's okay that I came by without calling first. I just….I just didn't know what to do. I've been trying to get a hold of Spike for a couple of months now, but he won't answer his phone and he's not there at his crypt. I was hoping you might know where he was." Tara said slightly awkwardly.
"No it's fine. Come in. Do you want some coffee or something?" Cordelia asked with a smile.
"No thank-you." Tara said politely as she made her way over to the sitting area with everyone else.
"I'll be right back I'm just going to check on him." Angel said and the others understood what he meant.
Angel headed up the stairs and into his bedroom. He saw Spike still on the bed and he was half awake. He opened his eyes when he heard the door open and he saw Angel there. Angel went and sat down on the edge of the bed.
"Will, Tara just arrived. She's been looking for you for a couple of months now. I'm going to be down there talking to her about Buffy and Dawnie. Cordy hasn't been able to get a hold of her and her number has changed. Are you okay if I go do that?" Angel asked calmly.
"No you need to do that." Spike said with worry in his voice.
"Ok I'll be back up here once I have some information. Just rest please."
Spike gave a small nod. Angel bent down and once again placed a kiss to Spike's forehead before he got up and headed back downstairs and sat down on one of the couches.
"Everything ok?" Cordelia asked Angel.
"He's just going to sleep. Spike is upstairs. I found him last night tortured and beaten almost to death in his crypt. I brought him back here and he's staying here. I've barely heard from him in the past four months now and the same goes for Dawnie. Spike is really worried about her. She kept canceling their times together and she barely texted him. None of us have heard from her and Cordy tried her cell, but the number was changed." Angel told Tara.
"Is Spike okay? Who attacked him?" Tara asked with concern.
"He's seriously injured. It'll take weeks before he's physically healed. I can't tell you what happened, it's his story to tell and I don't know who he wants to know. But from now on he will be living here and you can reach him through the hotel number or my cell. I don't know where his ended up, but it's not here."
"What we really need to know is how Dawn is doing and what Buffy has been like." Wesley said calmly.
"I haven't seen Buffy around much. Willow and me are living at the house, but things haven't been good. Buffy is spending a lot of time with Riley and the new Initiative. She's been gambling a lot. She's not working, but she is getting money from somewhere. The bills are always paid through a bank account that I think belongs to Spike. Her and Riley have been going away on weekends and on a trip to Hawaii. I think she is stealing it from Spike. She doesn't patrol much anymore and she has been helping the Initiative in capturing demons and vampires. She says they aren't doing any experiments just killing them, but then why capture them? She doesn't come home much and Willow is really worried about her, but she doesn't know what to do. She just doesn't seem to care anymore like she used to. Even patrolling she only goes with Riley and that's for captures. She doesn't slay anymore hardly. We've been doing it and the vampire population is going up with us not being able to keep up. As bad as it sounds we also have lives we have to live. We're just normal humans, we don't have super powers or fighting skills. None of us know what to do anymore." Tara said honestly.
"This is a problem. A Slayer who is not slaying, but helping to capture demons and vampires. She used to believe it was wrong, now she is helping them. I am afraid it may be time to make that phone call Angel." Wesley said.
"Phone call to who?" Tara asked.
"Giles. And you're right Wes make the call and tell him to come here first so we can explain everything." Angel said.
"I'll call afterwards." Wesley said.
"What about Dawnie? How has she been?" Gunn asked.
"We don't really know. For a while we thought she was spending her time out of school with Spike. He hadn't been around asking about her so we assumed he was seeing her. She forged Buffy's signature on her phone number change form at school. She gave a false one so that when she skipped it wouldn't go to the house. Willow and I we haven't really seen her in two months. The last time she left the house she was driving this brand new black mustang convertible. Apparently it's hers. That was the last time we've seen her. At first we just thought we were missing each other between courses and her going to hang with Spike. Then last week a woman from social services came by the house when Buffy was gone. I was there and she told me how Dawnie hadn't been in school for two months. She left a card and told me to have Buffy call." Tara started.
"So where has she been if she isn't in school and she wasn't with Spike?" Fred asked.
"I don't know. After the social worker left I went into Dawnie's room. I was hoping there would be something there to help me understand. She's never loved school like Willow, but she's never hated it either. She had problems doing homework like every other kid her age, but she always did it and did very well. Her door was always closed and when I went in I looked around and most of her clothes were gone. I um… I found little baggies empty from drugs and some with a little left in it. I brought them with me I thought maybe Angel you would be able to tell what it is. I also found this doctor's paper. It's from a free clinic here in L.A. Almost four months ago Dawnie came down and got an abortion." Tara said as she pulled out the form and the little baggies of drugs.
"What?" Angel asked shocked and concerned as he took what Tara held out to him.
"I know. Willow was shocked when I showed her. She wanted to know why Spike never said anything or if he even knew. When I told her that I hadn't been able to get a hold of him or find him in two months she suggested I come and talk to you. We don't know what to do anymore. And it sounds bad, but we don't have to time to handle this. I want to help her, but I don't even know where to start for something like this. She's so lost and she must be in a great amount of pain to be doing these things. She's not happy she can't be. I know she was happy here for that weekend. I thought maybe if we could find her that she could spend some time here. I know it's a lot to ask, but we just don't know what to do." Tara said sadly.
"She'll live here. We can take care of her and get her back on track." Angel said.
"I bet you she is with that boyfriend Jake something. He's got to be the one that got her pregnant and been giving her the drugs. We find him then we'll find her." Cordelia said.
"With Dawnie being mixed into the wrong crowd getting her out of Sunnydale is the best thing for her." Gunn said.
"What did the social worker have to say?" Wesley asked.
"She was talking about having Buffy's guardianship removed and having Dawnie placed in a group foster home for troubled teens. She was already starting the paperwork to have Dawnie removed. I offered to become Dawnie's guardian, but she refused to let me. She doesn't think having another single female would be best for Dawnie and what she would need. She wasn't happy at all. She had been calling Buffy trying to get meetings with her, but Buffy has been ignoring her. Willow and Xander think she is just having a hard time adjusting, but…" Tara said unsure if she should even say this out loud.
"You think something went wrong." Wesley simply stated.
"I come from a magic family. I grew up around Earth witches. I know that there are rules you don't break. Raising the dead is one of them. I never would have if Willow hadn't assured me that Buffy was trapped in a Hell dimension. I just couldn't bear to leave her in a place like that. Not after everything she had done to save the world in her life. I thought Willow checked, but she didn't. We didn't finish the spell, the circle was broken and the urn was destroyed. The Buffy that died would never have neglected Dawnie. She would never go back with Riley after what happened. She would never work with the Initiative capturing demons and vampires. She would never neglect her duties as a Slayer. This isn't our Buffy that came back. The spell worked, but we didn't bring Buffy back. I don't know who or what we did bring back, but it's not Buffy. She doesn't even have the same aura. I thought it would go back to normal once she got used to being back, but it hasn't. Something needs to happen." Tara explained.
"I'll call Giles and between us we can figure out just what did go wrong. We will need to run some tests on Buffy though, magical in nature. As I have explained to Angel there truly is no telling what could have gone wrong. Do you remember the exact spell Willow did because that would be very helpful in narrowing down the possibilities?" Wesley asked.
"Yes I do. I can write it down for you." Tara said.
"Off the top of your head what could it be?" Gunn asked Wesley.
"As I have said to Angel it could be a number of things, but it is possible only part of her soul got returned to her body. The soul is the last part that returns when you bring someone back from the dead. It is the last thing that leaves the body when you die. Part of a soul could keep her from harming humans, but have no problem with torturing demons or vampires. She could have someone else's soul within her. Her personality could have been altered from the long period of death that she was in. Honestly, it could be anything and it might never be able to be fixed I'm afraid." Wesley answered.
"So worst case scenario Buffy goes off the rails and is working with the enemy in a way." Cordelia started.
"In a way?" Fred asked.
"The Initiative is someone I would consider the enemy. Torturing demons and vamps not very Slayery. Say something is wrong and we can't fix it. What do we do then?" Cordelia asked.
"We have Faith, but she is in prison." Wesley said.
"We need to start researching and figuring out a way to get her out of there legally just in case." Angel said.
"Really? She tried to kill you." Gunn said.
"We might need her. She is a Slayer and if we need help containing Buffy she's going to come in handy. Spike can't with his chip and you won't be any match for her if I need the backup." Angel said.
"Also if we can't fix Buffy then Sunnydale will have a Slayer. We cannot leave the Hellmouth unguarded." Wesley added.
"I'll start looking into it and see if I can figure out how to get her out if we have to." Cordelia said.
"In the meantime we need to find this boyfriend and see if we can find Dawnie with him. What's the drug?" Gunn asked Angel.
Angel opened the one package and smelt it before he smelt the other one.
"One's cocaine and the other one is some mixture of cocaine and MDA. Both are addicting." Angel answered.
"So she is probably addicted to drugs then." Gunn stated.
"Most likely. This situation is serious." Wesley said.
"I can't leave Spike right now to go and look for Dawnie. Gunn why don't you go down to Sunnydale and see if you can track down her boyfriend." Angel said.
"What's his last name do we know?" Gunn asked.
"I don't know. Janice is still Dawnie's best friend she might know something." Tara said.
"How did you get down here?" Angel asked Tara.
"I took a bus." Tara answered.
"You can ride back with me. How long am I supposed to stay down there?" Gunn asked Angel.
"See if you can find her by morning if not come back. I'm sure Giles will be here by then." Angel answered.
"I will call him now and he will be on the next plane I assure you. Tomorrow morning will be good. Tara perhaps you would like to be here for that." Wesley said.
"Yes I would thank-you." Tara said.
"Do you want to just stay here or go with Gunn?" Cordelia asked.
"I'll go with him and help look around. No one knows I'm here either. I really should tell Willow."
"Just don't tell anyone about Spike being here. I don't want any of them or Buffy coming down here for him." Angel said.
"I won't. Why not Buffy though?" Tara asked confused slightly.
"They're gonna find out eventually." Cordelia said to Angel.
"Buffy is the one that hurt Spike isn't she?" Tara asked sadly.
"She's been abusing him for months now, almost a year. Her and Finn have been torturing and beating Spike for four months now almost. She's not the same Buffy she was before she died." Angel said.
"I had no idea. I knew Spike and Buffy were sleeping together, but I had no idea she was hurting him. I won't tell anyone that he's here or that Giles is coming. I'll tell Willow I need to come down here for some school research. She really doesn't want to believe that something went wrong with the spell or Buffy. She feels guilty as it is with finding out she was in Heaven." Tara said calmly.
"So she should. She may be in for a very serious consequence and lesson I'm afraid. We cannot ignore this any longer. Not only with the level of damage that has been done to Spike, but Dawn now. This needs to end. I would suggest we start finding a good legal lawyer to get Faith out and a good family lawyer to get guardianship of Dawn." Wesley said.
"For who though? Is social services going to let us take Dawnie in?" Fred asked.
"Maybe Spike, if he had the right papers. If Willow is on board with everything she could create papers where Spike could be an older brother or half-brother. She would be able to go to family if there was any." Tara suggested.
"That could work. Her father has long been out of the picture. Who's to say that Dawn's father couldn't have gotten an English woman pregnant before Buffy was born. It could work if we got Spike looking the part." Wesley said.
"Lose the all black clothing and the long black duster for the meetings. He probably cleans up nice." Cordelia said.
"Talk to Willow about it and see what she has to say. If she won't then we can have someone down here do it." Angel said to Tara.
Tara gave a nod and Wesley spoke as he stood up.
"Right I will call Giles and get him down here. Tara if you wouldn't mind writing out the spell that Willow performed that would be most helpful."
"Of course." Tara said.
"While you are doing that I will get ready and we can hit the road." Gunn said as he got up to bring his mug into the kitchen.
"There's coffee and food in the kitchen help yourself. I'll go tell Spike what is going on." Angel said.
"Good luck." Cordelia said with a small smile.
"We need to find her. If you can't find her by morning then we'll do a locator spell and try that." Angel said.
"I've already tried she has blocked herself somehow. She picked up a talisman or did a spell around herself, but she's blocked us from finding her that way." Tara said sadly.
"Great." Cordelia said sarcastically.
"Looks like we really are going old school then. I'll go get ready." Gunn said.
"I hope Spike is going to be okay." Tara said to Angel.
"He'll be fine in time. We need to find Dawnie, because he's not going to stop worrying about her until we do and he's in no shape to be moving around looking for her." Angel said.
"We'll find her." Gunn said with confidence.
Angel gave a nod and he stood up to head up the stairs to talk to Spike. He really wasn't looking forward to this conversation, but he knew he couldn't keep this from Spike. He had to tell him though, this wasn't something he could keep to himself. He couldn't do that to Spike. Angel headed up the stairs and into the bedroom. He saw Spike fighting to keep his eyes open from his spot on the bed. He looked horrible. He was very thin and covered in bruises, cuts, burns and broken bones. It was going to take a long time before he was back to complete health and back to a good weight once again. Angel didn't care though, he wasn't going to give up on Spike and he wasn't going to let Spike deal with everything on his own. Angel shut the door and went over to the bed and sat down on the edge. Spike's eyes fluttered open again and he forced them to stay open as he saw Angel sit down on the bed.
"Is the Bit ok?" Spike asked with a weak voice.
"Will, I need to tell you something and I know as hard as it's going to be you need to remember that you are severely injured and you need to stay in this bed and get better." Angel started.
"Please don't tell me she's dead. Please don't." Spike said with fear in his voice.
"She's not dead and she's not hurt, physically at least, she's not hurt. She does have a few problems right now. The first being we don't know where she is." Angel said.
"That's okay though we can find her. As long as she's not dead then everything is fixable." Spike said relieved that Dawn was still alive and hadn't been killed while he was getting tortured by Buffy and Riley.
"That's right. She does have some problems though. Two months ago she stopped going to school. Tara didn't know until a week ago. A social worker came to the house to speak to Buffy. She wasn't there, only Tara was. She spoke to the worker and the worker was going to have Buffy's guardianship removed. Tara tried to see if she would allow her to have guardianship, but the worker denied her right away. Tara doesn't know when Dawn was at the house last. She hasn't really seen her in two months between her schedule. Tara assumed that Dawn was going to school. Dawn forged Buffy's signature on some school papers to change the phone number so there were no messages left at the house. She did see that Dawn had a brand new black mustang convertible two months ago. Her boyfriend probably gave it to her."
"She's gonna be with him. That Janice bird probably knows where he lives." Spike said with anger edging his weak voice.
"Gunn and Tara are leaving in a few minutes to go to Sunnydale and start looking. Will, Tara went into Dawn's room after the social worker left. She found that most of her clothes were gone and that she clearly hadn't been sleeping there or much at all. Probably within the past two months. She also found little baggies from drugs, some still had some left in them. She brought them and they are from cocaine and one had some MDA mixed into it."
"I knew she was doing drugs. I could tell she was lying. I was hopin' it wasn't that often though." Spike said sadly.
"She also found a report from a free clinic here in L.A from almost four months ago. Dawn came down here and got an abortion." Angel said gently.
"What? No she wouldn't do that. She wouldn't be that stupid to get pregnant and just get rid of it. She would have told me. She knows she can tell me anythin'. I would have talked to her about it. I would have taken her if that was her choice. There's some mistake." Spike said with hurt all throughout his voice.
"I'm sorry Tara brought the report I read it my sweet Childe. She did get an abortion without telling anyone. Tara tried to do a locator spell, but Dawn is doing something to block magic from her. Gunn and Tara are going to try and find her through Janice and the boyfriend. Wes is going to call Giles and have him come down here. Buffy is getting worse and not just with you and Dawnie."
"How?"
"The others have noticed that she's been neglecting her Slayer duties. They have been out patrolling instead of her. I guess she has been gambling a lot and working with the Initiative in capturing demons and vampires. The vampire population has gone up Tara was saying. Something needs to be done. Giles needs to know everything that has happened. Wes is going to tell him to come here so we can explain it to him. Tara is going to come back with Gunn to help explain as well. She believes that Buffy came back wrong. Willow and Xander just think she is having a hard time with the trauma of it all. But we all know that's not true."
"What will happen?"
"With Dawn we need to find her first. In the meantime Tara is going to see if Willow will draw up some papers that states that you are her half-brother. The social worker may be willing to let you have guardianship of Dawn so she doesn't end up in a group home for troubled teens. Hopefully that works. For Buffy I don't know. Tara is going to give Wes the exact spell that Willow did and he is going to try to research what could be wrong with Buffy. Giles will as well when he gets here. Wes says we'll have to do some spells on her to see which problem it is. Cordy is researching a legal way we can get Faith out of prison in case we need her help. If we can't fix Buffy there is still the Hellmouth practically unguarded. We'll need Faith."
"Is she reformed?"
"She is I believe. She was going through some stuff when she was younger, we've all been there. I think she is reformed and better now. With some guidance and reassurance I think she will be a great Slayer. She's had a rough life with some friends and positive reassurance then she will live up to her potential. How are you doing with all of this new information?"
"I just want to find her. She could have told me all of this. I wouldn't have gotten mad at her. I love her I would have understood and listened to her. I would have helped her with it. I just want her safe." Spike said sadly.
"We will find her and bring her back safely. I promise you my Childe. We will find her and bring her here where we can help her get back on track. We will find her." Angel said with strength.
"You won't let me go look for her." Spike simply stated.
"I won't let you out of this bed unless it's to shower and even then I'm going to be close by in case you fall. I know you want to go out there and tear the town a part. I want to too. Even if you were healthy enough to leave you can't it's daylight. Tara and Gunn will go and try and find her. If they can't they will be back here in the morning when Giles should be arriving if he's not already here. We will find her. Sunnydale is not that big. The best thing you can do for Dawn right now is eat and sleep. She's going to need you."
Spike gave a small nod knowing that Angel was right. He couldn't do anything for Dawn right now but try and heal up so he could be there for her when they found her.
"You need to eat and then you need to sleep. I'm going to do some research on Dawn and see if I can find anything on her phone to see if I can find a number for this boyfriend."
"You can do that?" Spike asked slightly surprised.
"Cordy showed me how. I might not be able to do it though."
"She has a MySpace page maybe there's a picture or somethin'."
"I'll check. Can you sit up?" Angel asked with a slight concern.
"Why?"
"You need blood."
"If you help me up then I could sit."
Angel moved and gently helped Spike to sit up. He then put his hand on the back of Spike's neck and brought Spike's head down to his neck. Spike didn't even argue. He needed Angel's strong blood in order to heal faster. Spike gently slid his fangs into Angel's neck and took as much blood as he was going to risk in his stomach. Once he was done he felt even more exhausted. Angel helped to lower Spike back down so he was flat on his back. Spike closed his eyes as Angel ran his thumb along Spike's left cheek as he fell asleep. Once Spike was asleep Angel got up and grabbed his laptop and went over to the other side of the bed. He opened it and started to go through it to try and see if he could find something on Dawn that Gunn and Tara could use to locate her.
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Tara and Gunn arrived back at Sunnydale just a few hours later. They headed straight for Janice's house to speak to her about Dawn. They didn't say much on the way to Sunnydale between them. Tara and Gunn didn't really know each other and both were comfortable with the silence between them. They were both just hoping that they would be able to find Dawn and get her to L.A before she did anything else stupid. They pulled up to the house and they both got out.
"Why don't you take the lead and if she gets mouthy I'll take over?" Gunn suggested to Tara.
"Ok." Tara said with a nod.
They headed up the front walk and up to the front door. Once there Tara rang the doorbell and after a moment they heard someone walking to the door and unlocking it. The door opened and Janice was on the other side. She didn't know who Tara or Gunn were so she only opened it part way.
"Yes?" Janice asked with attitude.
"Janice, I'm Tara. I'm a friend of Dawnie's. I'm hoping you would know where she is. We haven't seen or heard from her in two months. We're really worried about her. We were hoping you knew where she was." Tara said calmly.
"Two months eh? And now you are just coming to me to ask if I know where my best friend is? Ya you sound real worried about her." Janice said sarcastically as she crossed her arms across her chest.
"We didn't know she was missing. We have different schedules. We just thought we kept missing her. We need to find her and get her back on track." Tara explained.
"Get her back on track? She's not off track. She tells me everything. Like how none of you cared enough that she was alone all of the time. Or how there was almost never any food in the house. You haven't seen her in two months because you kept missing each other you would think if you cared that you would have made sure you saw her regardless of your schedule. Now you are worried about her well it's too late. She's where people care about her. She's got her own life and I'm not about to let you idiots try and take her away from happiness."
"Listen here girl she's a sixteen year old runaway. You think you got life all figured out you don't. And being around people doing drugs and her getting knocked up and an abortion isn't being happy. She's not safe with that idiot boyfriend of hers and if you think that is happiness then you're as dumb as you sound. Where the hell is she or do we need to get the cops here at your door?" Gunn said having enough of this girl. Even though he agreed with her on part of it. They shouldn't have been waiting around for two months. They should have made sure they saw Dawn, but he couldn't change that now.
"Be my guest call the cops. It doesn't change that I'm not telling you or them. Get the hell off from property." Janice said with anger as she slammed the door in their face.
Gunn banged his fist against the door before they turned to walk back to the car.
"Well that was pointless." Gunn grumbled.
"She was right though about part of it. We should have paid more attention to her. We should have made sure someone was there to see Dawnie in the last two months. Or before that. Spike warned us all and for a little while me and Willow we made sure we were around more. We made sure there was enough food in the house. But our lives got busy with school and work. Any free time we had we spent it with each other. We all just kept assuming Buffy was there seeing Dawn or Spike. We let them both down. No one checked in on Spike all of this time. Over a year he's been raising Dawnie and none of us bothered to check in on him. To be friendly with him. I should have stopped in on him to make sure he had blood and was taking care of himself too. We've all made sure a huge mistake and it was Dawnie and Spike that has been paying for it." Tara said sadly.
"I'm not gonna lie to you, you should have done all of that. I'm not a vampire loving guy. I hate them. I got a crew of runaways and orphan street kids and I trained them to fight the vampires and demons in our area of the city. I hate vamps and all of the destruction and pain they cause. Angel was the first vamp I have ever liked or trusted and it took some time to get used to him. When I found out Spike was in the hotel I was ready to go up there and stake his ass. Angel stopped me. Now after hearing everything he's been through in the last few years I don't think of him as a vamp. He's just this guy that has been taking care of a teenager and being abused and tortured by someone that is supposed to be on his side and protect him. You guys have all ignored and judged him and because of that you didn't take what he said seriously enough or at all. And Dawnie is the one that is paying for that. There's a reason why college students don't raise teenagers. They need more help than someone who can be there every now and then. Buffy should have been there for her, but she's got her own problems. Now we have to find Dawnie and get her better. It's why she needs to be in L.A because we can all be there for her and you guys can still live your lives. None of us are in college and we all work together. Most of us live in that hotel. We can be what you guys can't be for her. It doesn't make any of you bad people it just makes you the wrong people for her right now."
"That still sounds horrible though. We should be the right people for her. We should have been able to figure this out on how to have our own lives and still be there for her. Spike figured it out and he can't be outside in the daylight. There is no reason why four humans couldn't figure out how to raise a teenager together and still live their lives." Tara said sadly and frustrated at herself and the others.
"Maybe not, but that didn't happen. You can't change what happened in the past, all you can do is try and find her and get her the help she needs now. That's what we need to focus on right now. We gotta find her."
"You're right we need to find her. Then we can get her the help she needs. Should we call the police?"
"I think we need to go in and make a missing person's report and have them look for her. After we can drive around until we need to head back to L.A and hopefully Giles will be there. Come on." Gunn said as he went around to the driver side of the car.
They both got into the car and Tara gave the directions to Gunn to get to the police station. Once there they went in and filed a missing person's report. Tara had a photo of Dawn on her phone that the police could use to find her with. After speaking to the police for four hours they headed out and began to drive around to see if they could find Dawn. They checked the Bronze, but she wasn't there. The problem was Dawn had a car so she could have driven to another city for the night or completely moved out of Sunnydale even. They truly didn't know where she was and unless they could figure out what she had done to make it so they couldn't use a locator spell to find her, they didn't know how they were going to find Dawn. It might take longer than they all wanted, but until they could find Dawn they didn't have much of a choice. At six that morning they made the way to the highway to head back to LA without Dawn.
They finally arrived just after eight and both were exhausted and discouraged. They headed inside to see Angel coming down the stairs and Cordelia sitting down with a mug in her hand on the couch with Fred.
"Any luck?" Fred asked with hopefulness in her voice.
"Naw we didn't find her. How's Spike doin?" Gunn asked as they walked into the lobby space.
"He's really worried. He wants to go out and look for her himself. If we don't have anything soon he's not going to just stay in bed much longer. He's too weak to do much right now, but it won't stop him for long." Angel said with worry as he reached the bottom of the stairs.
"Where's Wes at?" Gunn asked.
"He went to go and pick up Giles from the airport. Who apparently thinks we are either lying or have gone insane." Cordelia said as she rolled her eyes.
"He cares very much for Buffy. It won't be easy for him to hear and see what has happened." Tara said.
"What happened?" Angel asked.
"We went to talk to that Janice chic who is kind of a bitch for a sixteen year old. She wouldn't tell us anything. We went and filed a missing person's report at the cop shop. That took four hours and then we went all over Sunnydale trying to find her. We came up with nothing. She's got a car she could be anywhere with this dude for all we know." Gunn said frustrated that he didn't have more for Angel.
"We've been checking her Myspace account and anyone from the high school, we've come up empty. I called her school and they couldn't tell me much because I'm not a guardian, but basically she hasn't been to any classes in two months and even before then it was sketchy. She hasn't really been going regularly since her mom died. Since Buffy died she went to summer school to make up some courses and that seemed to be going well. It was shaky at first, but it got better and she made up the courses. Ever since Buffy has been back she's slowly going downhill and now since the boyfriend she's gone completely out of control." Cordelia said.
"So she's in with the wrong crowd, but we knew that with the drugs and the abortion clinic." Gunn said.
"When will Giles and Wesley be back?" Tara asked.
"Soon Wes left an hour ago so within fifteen minutes they should be back. There's coffee in the kitchen and some food help yourself." Cordelia said with a smile.
"Thanks." Tara said with a shy smile.
"Come on, I don't know about you, but I need some fuel before this next step of fun." Gunn said.
They both headed to the kitchen and Cordelia look over at Angel.
"How is our boy really doing?"
"He's stressed and that is making his body even weaker. We need to have something for him. He has done all of this for Dawn, to keep her safe and in that house where Joyce wanted her to be. Now she is missing, has been really for two months and he just wants to go out there and find her."
"He can't though, he's in no shape to be moving around let alone out there on the streets looking for Dawnie. Gunn is right she has a car, she could be anywhere right now. We don't even know if she's in the state." Cordelia said.
"Couldn't we do some kind of magic to remove whatever is blocking us from finding her?" Fred asked.
"Wesley and Giles would be the ones to ask that question. All I know is there is a sixteen year old out there on her own doing drugs and Spike is upstairs ready to go hit the streets to find her. I can keep him up there for a week, but after having my blood for that long he'll have the strength to get out of bed. I don't know if I can keep him here after that. We need something to go off of so we can find her before Spike sneaks out one night to do it himself." Angel said.
"And how long will it take before Buffy and Riley figure out he's not in Sunnydale anymore? Riley saw you, it's not going to take a genius to figure out that you took Spike out of there. How long before one of them shows up here?" Cordelia asked.
"I don't know. It would be stupid for them to show up here, either one of them. We don't know anything about this new Initiative either. We need more information on all of this." Angel said as he ran his hands over his face.
"Once Wes and Giles get here we can go over everything and try to find out some information. We've gotten very good at getting information in the past we can do this." Cordelia said.
Gunn and Tara came back out into the lobby area with a coffee and some toast. They hadn't eaten much at all yesterday from looking around for Dawn and they were both hungry. They went over and sat down on the couches as Angel leaned against the back of the couch that Cordelia was sitting down on.
"Janice didn't tell you anything?" Angel asked Gunn and Tara.
"Naw she said if we cared then we would have been there two months earlier asking about her. Even if she knows where Dawnie is she's not gonna tell us. The cops said they would talk to her, but you can't make her talk. She's sixteen she can just say she doesn't know anything." Gunn said.
"Could we follow her?" Fred asked.
"Maybe, but there's no guarantee that she will lead us to Dawnie." Gunn said.
"So what do we do?" Fred asked sadly.
"There must be only so many talisman or spells a beginner can do to make it so we can't use a locator spell to find her. If we can figure out what she did then we could find out how to break it so we can locate her with magic." Angel said.
"Except if it is a talisman, she could have easily of gotten it from the Magic Shop and a talisman has to be broken physically to break the spell. We wouldn't be able to use magic to break it." Tara explained sadly.
"Do you know if there is such a thing in the Magic Shop and if it's missing?" Angel asked.
"I can ask Anya she would know by looking at the inventory." Tara said.
"Can you call her and check?" Cordelia asked.
"Of course." Tara said as she pulled out her cell phone.
"Did you see anyone down there?" Angel asked Gunn.
"No we didn't run into anyone." Gunn answered.
"I sent Willow a text message letting her know that I was here and you were going to try and help us find Dawnie." Tara said as she held the phone up to her ear listening to the ringing. After a moment the answering machine kicked in. "Anya it's Tara, I need you to call my cell when you get this. I was wondering if Dawnie maybe took a talisman from the shop, something that she could wear that would block us from finding her with magic. If you could check and call me back I would appreciate it. Thanks." Tara ended the call and spoke to the group. "She is normally not there until nine. She always checks the messages first thing."
"Good at least we will know if Dawn has a talisman or did some basic spell. I doubt the boyfriend would know how." Angel said.
The door opened and they all turned to look and see Wesley and Giles walking into the hotel. Giles didn't look happy at all. He had a duffle bag in his hand and he placed it down on the floor as he walked over to them.
"I refuse to believe this nonsense." Giles started with anger, but Angel cut him off.
"You refuse? That's the problem everyone refuses to see what the hell is going on and now Spike and Dawn are the ones paying for it. I don't want to hear it. Giles you obviously believed part of it for you to get on a plane and fly eight hours here and you didn't do it just to hear what you believe to be lies. We are the ones that have been putting up with this for months, Spike is the one that has been putting up with this for over a year. So you are going to sit down and shut up and listen to us before you start making assumptions. I'm done with this shit." Angel said with anger and his eyes flashed back and forth between brown and yellow.
"There is a lot that has happened that we've bene blind to." Tara said gently.
Giles let out a deep sigh before he went and sat down on the couch. Wesley went and sat down beside Fred before Giles spoke.
"I suggest you start at the beginning then." Giles said with a tightness to his voice.
"And where would that be exactly?" Wesley asked with his own annoyance.
"When I left just after Halloween. I assumed everything was going well when I didn't hear from anyone." Giles said.
"When Buffy died and you left we didn't live up to expectations. We were all grieving and focused on our own lives and then how to bring Buffy back that we forgot about Dawnie. We never told you, because it never came up in conversation and you never asked. We all were just so happy to have Buffy back we forgot about what Spike did for all of us." Tara started.
"You and Willow moved into Buffy's house though to look after Dawn. So I don't understand how you weren't looking after her or what Spike has to do with it. I know he stayed and patrolled for whatever reason that he did." Giles said not truly understanding everything.
"He made a promise to Buffy when they went to get weapons before the big fight. She asked him to look after Dawn and protect her and he promised he would until the end of the world. That first month he was a wreck and not really taking care of himself. Dawnie went and saw him during that month and Spike found out that the bills hadn't been paid and there wasn't much food in the house. Willow and me still had school and work we didn't pay attention. The bills were a mess from Joyce's hospital bills and death and then Buffy's death. We didn't have a good grasps on it. Then we weren't in the house every night. Xander and Anya were focused on the shop and Xander had work. Everyone got so busy with their lives we fell behind and Dawnie went under the radar. After that first month Spike stopped drinking all of the time and started to get better. He paid the back payment on the mortgage which turned out to be more than just one month, Buffy hadn't been paying the bills after Joyce died. He paid the bills every months after that and made sure there was food in the house. He was there in the morning to get Dawnie off to school and was there at night when she got home from school. He cooked dinner and helped her with her homework." Tara said.
"Spike did? The vampire without the soul was the one to look after a teenage girl and not the group of humans that were Buffy's friends like it should have been. Are you telling me that Spike was the one to raise Dawn for almost five months and not who I expected to be there for her?" Giles asked with anger edging his voice.
"Watch it." Angel said with a slight growl.
"I don't mean that against Spike. I appreciate him staying and protecting everyone and patrolling. I expected more from the others. He shouldn't have been put in that position. It was supposed to be the other's responsibility to look after Dawn. It was supposed to be mine. But I left I can't change that. I failed that night to keep my Slayer safe and alive. I left and that is on my conscience, but I expected more from the humans in the group." Giles clarified.
"We were all grieving and so focused on bringing Buffy back that we forgot about Dawnie. We let Spike take over that part without even thinking about it. Willow and me should have been the ones to focus on the bills and Dawnie. Willow said the bills were being taken care of I just assumed it was from life insurance or money from the gallery that was outstanding. I didn't know it was Spike paying everything until a few months ago." Tara said.
"And when Buffy returned?" Giles asked clearly not happy that he had been left out of this loop for so long.
"Spike was still the one paying the bills. You know what happened up until you left again. Afterwards though she and Spike started to have this relationship." Tara said slightly uncomfortable.
"What type of relationship?" Giles asked tightly.
"They were having sex." Cordelia said for Tara with a smile.
"Buffy initiated it, every time. Before they were hanging out and friends and then once Buffy kissed Spike and then had sex with Spike she changed almost overnight. She stopped coming by to hang out and talk. She didn't want Dawn at his crypt anymore. Buffy didn't want him around her unless it was when she came to him for sex. She was using the sex as a way of release from the anger she felt towards her friends for pulling her out of Heaven. That eventually escalated to her physically beating up Spike. And Spike couldn't hit back so he had no choice, but to take the beatings. She would show up the next night looking for makeup sex. A few times when Spike wasn't in the mood or too beat up and said no she did it anyways. Once she got off she would kick him or punch him and leave." Angel explained with anger in his voice.
"And you heard this from where exactly?" Giles asked with anger as he looked right at Angel.
"From Spike when he showed up here seconds away from burning up in the sun roughly five months ago. She had beaten him up in an alley when he tried to stop her from going to the police when she believed she killed someone. Turns out she didn't, but she left him there on the ground without a second thought. He came here to hide out from the sun and I couldn't turn him away, not with how injured he was. He was covered in bruises, all of his ribs were broken. He had internal injuries so severe I had to give him some of my blood before he died from them. He was unconscious for five days afterwards and I continued to give him my blood and he still wouldn't wake up. He stayed for two weeks before he went back. He was thin, exhausted and breaking. He told me what had been going on since the last that I had heard. Which is something else we need to discuss. But he told me everything and I believed him, I do believe him. He wasn't lying about anything he said or had been through. He was making excuses for her. He sounded exactly like an abuse victim." Angel said.
"You don't want to hear any of this about Buffy. She is your Slayer, you love her very much like you would a daughter, but you need to hear this. This is the truth. We all saw Spike five months ago when he came here. These are not lies or some game he is playing." Wesley said.
"If he was that injured why did he go back after two weeks?" Giles asked.
"He went back to be there for Dawnie. He was still paying the bills even though Buffy was working she wasn't taking care of Dawnie. Two weeks later he came here with Dawnie for the weekend. He was beat up again from Buffy and it wasn't as bad as the last time, but still bad enough that he had to get away and be some place where people care about him. Buffy was going away that weekend so he brought Dawnie here." Cordelia said.
"Dawnie asked Willow if she could go and she thought it would be fine. We were also going to be gone that weekend so Dawnie would be with Spike and not with Xander. We assumed she was going to be with Xander, but we don't really know if Buffy thought of anything." Tara said.
"She stayed the weekend and I did what I could to cheer her up. Spike was with Angel trying to rest and heal up. I took her out sight-seeing and some shopping on the Saturday. Sunday we all relaxed here and we got to know her better and she got to know us better. She was really happy, she couldn't stop smiling." Cordelia said.
"That Sunday night Spike brought Dawnie back and he dropped her off at the house before he came and to the Magic Shop. He basically yelled at us to be paying more attention to Dawnie. He gave us a wakeup call. At least Willow and me. Xander thought he was lying to get attention from Buffy. We had no idea that Buffy wasn't providing Dawnie with food. We hadn't really been there much. Willow got into using too much magic and we broke up for a little while. So I moved out. After Willow got into a car crash with Dawnie and they were attacked by a demon did she realise that she was using too much magic and in too deep. She stopped completely that night and she hasn't done any in six months now." Tara said.
"I had no idea. No one told me that she was abusing her powers. I spoke to her when she brought Buffy back from the dead that she was stupid for doing it. I thought it would have been a wakeup call, especially after her forgetting spell. Were they injured?" Giles asked.
"Dawnie hurt her arm and there was a few bumps and bruises, but nothing extreme. Buffy and Spike were there to stop the demon and get Dawnie looked at." Tara explained.
"Well I am not glad to hear that, but I am glad to hear that Willow has stopped using her magic, though that brings out another issue entirely." Giles said.
"Which is?" Fred asked.
"Someone as powerful as Willow completely stopping magic doesn't work in the long term sense. The power continues to grow whether you use it or not. Eventually something horrific could happen that would channel a strong emotion to surface, such as the loss of someone she loved. That could bring forth her power and without it being trained she could go off the deep end and destroy her core self. With someone as powerful as Willow she needs to be trained properly by someone with strong and powerful abilities so Willow has complete control of her magic even in extreme situations. I will need to speak to her about it and get her some help on that front. She has long since surpassed me." Giles explained.
"As much as I like Willow she is not our main concern right now." Angel said.
"Yes it would appear so. Please continue." Giles said.
"After Spike left the Magic Shop Willow and me went home to see how Dawnie was doing. Buffy was angry that Dawnie went to LA with Spike she thought that Spike was getting too close to Dawnie. That maybe he was grooming her to be with him. We told her that he looked at her like a sister and would never do anything to hurt her or put her in danger. She grounded Dawnie for going without her permission even though she had Willow's. She told Dawnie she couldn't see Spike anymore and Dawnie told her that she hated her and went to her room. Willow and me got Buffy to calm down and to talk to Spike about ground rules so Dawnie could still see him. That night I went to check in on Dawnie, but she left out of her window she didn't come back that night." Tara said.
"Where did she go?" Giles asked.
"I thought she was with Spike, but the next day she came in and looked to delete a message from her school off the machine. I had already got it and deleted it before Buffy heard it. She had skipped school. We sat down and talked. She told me she was with Janice that night and she skipped school because she was too upset with Buffy. She told me that the weekend she spent here was the most fun she had had in a long time. She felt like a normal girl for the first time since she found out she was the Key. Only to come home to Buffy yelling at her the second she walked through the door. Willow and me stayed around more. We watched movies and made dinners. We tried to balance everything, but then with our work schedule and school schedule we lost track of Dawnie and the time we would spend together went down." Tara said.
"Angel and me went up there that weekend to see Dawnie and Spike. Spike had talked to Dawnie about some stuff and he was feeling down. Which is something else we have to explain after. The point in that was the last time we saw Dawnie and Spike up until last night." Cordelia said.
"None of us have even really heard from either of them. Cordelia was texting with Dawn off and on, until three months ago when it completely stopped on Dawn's end. Angel didn't really hear from Spike much either and only through texts." Wesley said.
"We got busy and we couldn't go down there. Finally last night I had enough and I went down to see him. Riley is back in town with the Initiative, he's been there for almost five months now. Him and Buffy are back together. They both started to torture Spike and take money from him. I found him in his crypt in the bottom he was in a dog crate big enough for a medium size dog. He had a collar and a leash that was attached to the floor. He was brutally beaten, tortured, starved and had a cross with a spell on it around his neck that made it so it couldn't be removed. It was on him for months, it burned right through all the way down to his bones. His ribs and chest plate are broken, he weighs less than a hundred pounds. They both had been torturing him and raping him. They had chained him up to his bed and had other demons and vampires pay to rape him." Angel said with anger.
"What?" Giles asked with shock and disgust on his face.
"For over a year in order to take care of Dawn Spike has been working at a demon brothel to pay the bills. Riley and Buffy found out and they used that to get money out of Spike. Thousands and thousands of dollars a month out of him by taking it from him or chaining him up and having demons pay them. Demons that were refused by the brothel for being too dangerous and violent. They made him drink expired blood from a dog dish. He had to lick it out. Before that Buffy told Spike that if he wanted to see Dawn he would have to pay two grand a week to see her and he could only see her for eight hours a week. He also had to keep paying all of the bills and anything else she came up with." Angel said as his eyes went yellow once again.
"This…that…" Giles was shocked into silence.
"What she wouldn't do that? Spike's lying because he's a vamp and he's making it all up?" Gunn asked with anger.
"No, no Spike would never make up anything like that. He would lie and say it wasn't Buffy. I'm not saying what you have been told is a lie. I just don't understand how this has been going on and no one called me. I don't understand what has been happening to her." Giles said confused and upset.
"Neither do we. We didn't know this was going on. We've all been so busy with work and school we've been so blind to everything." Tara said with shame in her voice.
"The cross, were you able to remove it?" Giles asked Angel.
"I did a reversal spell to remove the cross. Though, it is unclear if it will scar or not." Wesley said.
"And Spike is here?" Giles asked Angel.
"He's up in my room. He's very weak and in pain. They broke him. He wanted me to kill him, he begged me to kill him, but I won't. He believes he deserved it and that he's worthless and doesn't matter. They did something that not even Angelus could do, they broke him and now I have to try and pick up the pieces and put him back together." Angel answered.
Giles let out a sigh and he removed his glasses and cleaned them as he tried to get his mind on track with all of the information given to him.
"What has become of Dawn?" Giles asked as he put his glasses back on.
"That's a bit of a long story itself." Wesley said sadly.
"What's happened?" Giles asked with worry.
"When she was down here for that weekend when we went to lunch I got her talking about her life. She told me how Buffy had been ignoring her and how everyone has been treating her like a little kid." Cordelia started.
"She told Spike that she feels like she doesn't really exist. She's struggling with her origins. She feels like everyone thought she should have died that night and not Buffy, that they are blaming her for everything Buffy went through." Angel said.
"I've never blamed her for anything that happened. Buffy made her choice to jump off that tower to save Dawn. I have always respected that. I admit I shouldn't have left like that. I should have stayed and dealt with my own guilt and grief and stayed to look after Dawn. It's what I should have done and what Buffy would have expected of me. However, I never blamed Dawn for any of it. She didn't ask to be made what happened is not her fault." Giles said with strength in his voice.
"And that is what Spike told her. That no matter how she was made doesn't change that she is human and deserves the life that she was granted." Angel said.
"When I got Dawnie talking at lunch she told me about how she had a boyfriend. All I know is that his name is Jake and he's in College. She meet him when she went to a college party with Janice and her boyfriend. They got drunk and played strip poker and that night her and Jake slept together. During those two weeks since Spike left the first time she had seen Jake a lot. They continued to have sex and even went to a hotel the four of them and had a private group party if you get my drift." Cordelia said.
"Good lord." Giles said horrified.
"I've been trying to keep in touch with Dawnie, but through texts it's a little hard when the other person won't text back or even answer calls. It's been almost four months now really since I've been able to truly talk to her. I haven't heard anything from her at all in three months. We've tried to call two nights ago, but it's a changed number now. Her Myspace page is also a bust." Cordelia said.
"A few days ago, five roughly now. A social worker came to the house looking for Buffy. I was the only one there and she spoke to me about Dawnie. She hasn't been at school in two months. Dawnie forged Buffy's signature on a change of phone number form so when the school called it wouldn't go to the house. She hasn't been in any classes in two months. They've been calling the number, but no one called back obviously. The social worker wants to remove Dawnie from Buffy's care and place her in a group home for trouble youth. I asked if I could become Dawnie's guardian, but she refused the idea. She doesn't think it would be a good idea to take Dawnie from where one person is looking after her and placing her in the same situation. Once the social worker left I went up to Dawnie's room to try and figure out why she hasn't been in school. Almost all of her clothes were gone. I also found baggies of drugs that Angel discovered to be cocaine. I also found a clinic report from an abortion here in LA that was four months ago roughly. Dawnie has been doing drugs, drinking and having unprotected sex that lead to her being pregnant. She got an abortion done down here. She also has a car, a black mustang convertible that her boyfriend probably got for her." Tara explained.
"I… I don't know what to say to any of that. I know the memories of her when she was younger are not real, but they still feel real. I can't imagine that sweet little girl who used to hide around corners with her notebooks trying to spy on everyone turning to drugs and this troubled. Where is Buffy in all of this? If she is not working any longer how has she not noticed that Dawn is not there in two months?" Giles asked shocked and concerned.
"She's been with Riley. They went to Hawaii for a week. She has been working with the Initiative too. She hasn't been patrolling anymore. She works on capturing the demons and vampires and bringing them back to the Initiative. Spike has been kept in his crypt by Buffy and Riley so he wasn't out patrolling either. We've been trying to keep up, but we're just humans and we can't go as long as Buffy normally can and we're not that good. She's barely been home and when she is we don't really talk. The group is torn. Willow and Xander think that she has PTSD from everything that happened to her and she is just struggling with the trauma. Anya and myself we believe that she came back different or wrong. Her aura doesn't even feel or look the same as it did before." Tara said.
"When Tara couldn't find Spike she came here yesterday morning and we explained everything to her and she did the same for us. Dawn has been missing technically for two months now. Tara and Gunn went to Sunnydale yesterday after we were all informed and spoke to Janice, but she refused to tell them anything. They reported Dawn missing to the police and continued to look until early this morning when they drove back here to speak with you." Wesley said.
"We can do a locator spell on Dawn to find her." Giles said.
"I already tried. She has a talisman or did a spell around herself to block the locator spell. I called Anya and left a message at the shop asking her to check and to call me back." Tara said.
"Our first propriety is finding Dawn. But once we do I do not know what will happen. She can't stay with Buffy obviously, but a group home is not going to help her at all." Giles said.
"I want her down here with us. We can keep an eye on her and being down here she is away from that boyfriend and any problems she is getting herself into. Tara is going to check with Willow to see if she can make papers for Spike to be Buffy's half-brother. They can both be living here and Dawnie can go to school and get her life back on track. Its been made clear that the others are not up the looking after Dawn and getting her back on track." Angel said.
"I'm not going to argue that point. If she is in a bad crowd, which it sounds like she is, then being out of Sunnydale would be the best thing for her. We need to locate Dawn and we need to find out more about the Initiative now and what is wrong with Buffy. I don't agree that it is trauma, I believe something happened when the spell was interrupted. We need to try and figure out what that could be." Giles said.
"We need to do research on the spell. Tara has provided me with the exact spell that Willow performed. I have been doing research to see what could have gone wrong with the spell, but it is not simple as most would never perform the spell to begin with. We will probably have to do a spell on Buffy to see what went wrong." Wesley said.
"Which I do not see her being willing to do based on what I have heard from you. Having Riley in the mix again causes even more of a problem." Giles said.
"Our main priority is finding Dawn right now. Once we have Dawn back safe and where we can keep an eye on her then we can worry about Buffy and the Initiative." Angel said.
"Of course I agree. Dawn needs to be found first and foremost. Afterwards we can gather information on the Initiative and try and find out what is wrong with Buffy." Giles said.
"We are working on a legal way to get Faith out of prison just in case we need any extra muscle if Buffy decides to come after any of us. We truly don't know where her loyalties lay. She could have the Initiative come after all of us for all we know. Especially once she finds out that Dawn will be here with all of us and Spike." Wesley said.
"Can Faith be trusted?" Giles asked.
"I think she is reformed, she is just in need of some encouragement and the chance to show what she is worth. I think she is ready for this and being here is a good thing for her instead of Sunnydale. We all know what it is like to be judged and make mistakes. We won't hold it against her." Angel said.
"Yes the others in Sunnydale might not be as forgiving. Do the others know that I am here?" Giles asked.
"I didn't tell anyone. Willow is the only one that knows I'm here. I didn't think it was a good idea to tell them that you would be here just in case you didn't come or they got mad that you were coming here and not down there." Tara said just as her phone rang.
She picked it up and saw that it was Anya.
"Hello." Tara answered.
"So I have gone through my inventory and there is a coin talisman missing. It's not very expensive, but it will block the owner from any magic being done on them or to them if the owner has it on them. It would have been easy for Dawn to lift it without anyone noticing that it was missing. There are other items that are missing as well. Necklaces and small things that can go into your pocket. None are very expensive, but it's adding up so far to five hundred dollars' worth that is missing so far." Anya said annoyed and unhappy.
"Oh I'm sorry Anya. Do you know what the coin was called?" Tara asked sadly.
"It doesn't have a special name, it's just a coin that was blessed by a coven to turn it magical and protect the owner from magic. It's about the size of a silver dollar." Anya said.
"Ok well I will be on my way back in shortly and we can all talk and try to find Dawnie and get to the bottom of all of this. Thanks for looking."
"I'm going to go through all of my inventory and see what else is missing. So far nothing could be used for bad in the wrong hands so she got lucky there if she is selling this stuff on her own. I plan on having a very long conversation with her when we do find her." Anya said with anger.
"I'm sure there will be a long line for people that want to talk to her about some things. I'll see you at the shop in a few hours."
"Ya okay." Anya said and ended the call.
Tara put her phone down as she spoke. "Dawnie took a magical coin about the size of a silver dollar. There isn't a name for it it's just blessed by a coven to protect the owner from magic being done on them or to them. As long as Dawnie has it on her somewhere she is blind to magic. Anya also said there was about five hundred dollars' worth of items missing. They are all small enough to put in your pocket, necklaces and such. She is still going through the inventory list, but so far nothing dangerous is missing." Tara explained sadly.
"So she's stealing as well. Maybe to fund her drug habit." Wesley suggested.
"Maybe, but if Dawnie's boyfriend gave her a new mustang convertible I can't imagine he is charging her for cocaine. Maybe she was doing it before the boyfriend and he got her really going or she's doing it out of habit." Cordelia said.
"If she is stealing from the Magic Shop it's possible that she is stealing from other shops as well. She may owe a lot of business owners." Wesley said.
"We can find out once we find her. All of this started after Buffy came back from the dead. She was struggling after Buffy died, but Spike was there almost all of the time and got her back on track with school. She was in summer school and she went and did her homework and made up those courses. Once Buffy came back she couldn't see Spike as much and he wasn't there all the time to make sure she was doing her homework. She could have been stealing for almost a year now." Angel said.
"Yes well that is not something we will know until we find Dawn and ask her about it. What did the police say?" Giles asked Tara and Gunn.
"It's been two months and she is labeled as a runaway. They asked about her family and we did say that Spike or William, was Buffy's half-brother, but we didn't have contact information for him. They said they would ask Janice questions, but they can't make her talk if she refuses to tell them the truth. They will ask around with her classmates and see if they can find her." Tara said.
"But she does have a car so she could be anywhere by now for all we know." Gunn added.
"Yes that is a problem isn't it. Do we know the plates of the car?" Giles asked.
"No we don't. And we can't do a locator spell on an object." Tara said.
"What about this boyfriend? Can we find him?" Giles asked.
"We don't know a last name and we don't have anything of his to use a locator spell. We don't even know if he does go to college or if he's just of that age." Tara said.
"So it would appear we are at a standstill here." Giles said frustrated already.
"So it appears." Wesley said.
"How is Spike doing?" Giles asked Angel.
"He is worried about Dawn. He's too injured right now to be moving around and that is the only thing keeping him in bed. He is getting my blood and I am making sure he sleeps and heals. Like I said before you arrived I can only keep him in that bed for a week at most right now. Once he is healed enough to walk around he will be out of here and back in Sunnydale to find her." Angel said.
"That I do not see going over well. We need to be ready for when we do find Dawn and Buffy discovers she is here with Spike. She won't legally be able to take Dawn away, but if she is as far gone as you say then it will not matter. She could come down here with Riley, the Initiative or just herself. We need to be prepared for anything." Giles said.
"I can put up wards for nonviolence so no one can come in and force anyone to leave or harm anyone as long as they are in the building." Wesley said.
"We should do that. At least everyone will be safe in here." Angel said.
"We can do research on the Initiative and see if we can find anything." Fred said.
"I will as well when I get to Sunnydale. Do you know where it is located?" Giles asked.
"No just that Spike said it wasn't in Sunnydale, but close enough for Riley to be living in Sunnydale." Angel said.
"So that narrows down the possibilities. We can look for any area that is using a large amount of power and was recently renovated. If that does not work we can do a spell that will focus on large amounts of demon energy and we can locate the facility that way." Giles said.
"And if they are up to their old tricks?" Gunn asked.
"Then we will need to shut them down. We may have to work with the Council in order to get enough military support to shut them down for good. For now we need all of the information we can get on them." Giles said.
"We'll research and see what we can find." Wesley said.
"The police are looking for Dawn, but we also need to be out looking for her and asking around. Maybe we can find this Jake fellow or some of his associates." Giles said.
"That's the priority especially before Spike upstairs is well enough to steal a set of keys and make it out of here." Cordelia said.
"Yes well if there is nothing else we need to discuss I will head to a rental car company and get down to Sunnydale. Tara, are you coming back as well?" Giles asked.
"I am yes. I have classes and I want to be looking for Dawnie." Tara said.
"I can drive you to a rental company." Wesley said.
"Thank-you." Giles said.
"We'll keep in touch on our end and let you know what we find." Angel said.
"We will as well. When we hear from the police we will call you or if we find her." Giles said.
"Hopefully that will be soon." Cordelia said with concern.
"I hope so as well. Are you ready to leave Tara?" Giles asked calmly.
"Yes I am. I just came down to talk to Angel to see if he had known where Spike was. I'm ready to get home and look for Dawnie."
"Thank-you for coming to tell us." Angel said to Tara.
"I'm sorry it's taken so long." Tara said.
"We know now and now we can find her and focus on getting her better." Angel said trying not to hold any of this against Tara as she was one of the adults in the situation.
"We'll be in touch." Giles said as he stood up.
Angel gave a nod and Tara and Wesley headed out with Giles. Once the door closed Angel spoke.
"Cordy, keep trying to find ways to get Faith out of prison legally. I don't want to have to break her out unless we have no other choice. Gunn start looking into the college and Dawn's high school. We need to find anyone with the name Jake or any classmates of hers. Find their Myspace accounts and see if you can find any photo with Dawn in them. We need all of the information we can get to try and track her down. Fred, focus on the Initiative and see what you can dig up. I'll get Lorne in on this and he can ask around in the demon community. Maybe some escaped or had a close run-in with one of the soldiers. When Wes gets back he can focus on the spell used on Buffy. I'll look into other cities and see if Dawnie ran into the law or was in the hospital in the last two months." Angel said.
"Oh check that free clinic she would have had to leave an address and a phone number, maybe they will give it to you." Cordelia said.
"I'll check and see, but they probably won't without a badge. I'll try though." Angel said.
"We'll find her Angel. If she's still in Sunnydale she can only hide out for so long before someone sees her. We'll find her." Gunn said trying to sound comforting.
"I hope so. I really don't want Spike going back there. Let's get to work I'll be up there with the laptop if you need me." Angel said as he moved away from the couch and headed towards the stairs.
The others got up and headed to their own computers or laptop to get to work on finding Dawn and any information they can get on the Initiative. Angel grabbed his laptop from his office and headed upstairs to his room. He quietly walked inside and saw that Spike was still asleep. He was resting and drinking more blood now, because he wanted to be strong enough so he could go out and find Dawn. Angel closed the door and went over to the empty side of the bed. He sat down with his back against the headboard with his laptop in his lap. He began to go through it to see if he could find Dawn. The sooner they found her the better everyone would be.
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Giles and Tara arrived at the Magic Shop just after eleven that morning. They didn't say much on the trip back to Sunnydale, because Giles was very upset and disappointed with Tara and everyone else for ignoring Dawn and the signs of something being wrong with Buffy. It shouldn't have just come down to Spike taking care of Dawn and paying the bills when he didn't even live there. Giles never expected to be feeling respect for Spike and yet he found himself having a great deal of respect for Spike for everything he did for Dawn in the past year and a bit. Now the situation was very out of control and Spike was seriously injured, Dawn was missing for two months and Buffy has been spiralling out of control. All of this could have been avoided if the others had paid attention in the first place.
They arrived at the Magic Shop and Giles parked in the parking space out front. They got out and headed inside. Willow and Xander were sitting at the table while Anya was behind the counter. They were surprised and shocked to see Giles coming into the shop with Tara.
"Giles, man what are you doing here?" Xander asked with shock in his voice.
"Wesley called me and it should have been one of you that called me long ago. I just spent almost an hour listening to what has been happening here since Buffy has been brought back. Things that were kept from me even when I did come back when Buffy first returned. I can honestly say I have never been more disappointed in you all since the moment I have met you." Giles said with anger in his voice.
Tara went and sat down next to Willow as Willow spoke.
"I don't understand it's not our fault that Dawnie is going down the wrong road." Willow said calmly.
"Not your fault? Then whose fault is it? You are all of the adults in this situation whether you wanted to be or not you are. You had a responsibility to that girl to be there for her and look after her and you have all let her down. You allowed Spike, a vampire without a soul, to look after Dawn when it should have been you all doing it. Spike shouldn't have to of been the one paying the bills and being there all the time helping with homework and cooking dinners. I am impressed and amazed at what Spike has gone through just to help Dawn, when you all have been ignoring her and forgetting all about her and basic needs like food and shelter. You all should be ashamed of yourselves. If you had paid attention and listened to Spike's warnings about Dawn being on her own and something wrong with Buffy this could have all been prevented. Instead Spike is seriously injured from Buffy torturing him practically for months on end, Dawn is missing for two months, has been using drugs and had an abortion four months ago. Not to mention Buffy is now back with Riley and working for the Initiative capturing demons and vampires. And none of you thought to call me to inform me of the situation. Wesley had to. You all should be ashamed of yourselves." Giles said with anger and disappointment in his voice.
"What do you mean Buffy has been torturing Spike? Where did that come from?" Xander asked with anger.
"Really that is your concern? I would have thought you would be more concerned with the part of Dawn using drugs and getting an abortion at sixteen." Anya said in her usual tone.
"And where did that even come from? Spike spreading lies about Buffy to get attention because she doesn't want anything to do with him." Xander said angry.
"He's not lying. I found the baggies of drugs in Dawnie's room with the free clinic report for the abortion. Spike is seriously injured and has been a few times in the past because of Buffy beating him so badly. She's been abusing him and her and Riley had been torturing him for months straight now. Spike wouldn't lie about something like that. He would lie to cover it up, not to make it up. You know Spike would never make up a lie about being weak and Riley hurting him. He would deny it only he couldn't this time around because Angel found him. He's seriously hurt and in a great deal of pain on many levels." Tara said sadly.
"I still don't buy it. Buffy is my best friend, we've been fighting beside each other since we were sixteen. I know she's having problems right now, but come on do we really believe she would go that far?" Xander asked with less anger in his voice.
"She has Xander. I don't want to admit it either, but she has." Tara said sadly.
"Spike wouldn't lie about something like that. Tara is right he would never willingly admit to being hurt by Riley. He has to be in a lot of pain and misery to even admit it to Angel. I just…I don't understand what is wrong with Buffy. She's traumatised I know, but shouldn't she be getting over it by now and not getting worse?" Willow asked with concern.
"The spell was interrupted maybe you did screw it up." Anya said without sympathy in her voice.
"Ahn." Xander warned.
"What it's true." Anya simply said.
"It is a very real possibility that even if you weren't interrupted the spell could have gone wrong. It was why you didn't inform me of this spell. It is also why you didn't want Spike knowing. You knew that if Spike found out he wouldn't have let you perform the spell. He hates magic he would have made sure you checked where Buffy was first before even entertaining the idea of doing a spell. You didn't want him to know so you wouldn't have to listen to him. Unfortunately in this situation Spike would have been right. His hatred of magic would have come in handy. Wesley is going to research the spell and we are going to do the same. We need to find out what is wrong with Buffy and how to reverse it if it is even possible. For now we need to find Dawn. Tara and Gunn filed a missing person's report last night and they spoke with Janice. Janice wouldn't tell them anything. Dawn also has a car and a boyfriend, but we only know his name is Jake." Giles said.
"Well he must be into partying and popular with the wrong crowd for Dawn to have gotten drugs and knocked up. Plus I finished the inventory and a thousand dollars' worth of items were stolen. That can probably be contributed to the boyfriend." Anya said.
"A thousand dollars?" Willow asked shocked.
"In small pocket items." Anya said.
"As much as I hate to suggest this, maybe we should take her picture to the mall and shops around town to see if anyone recognizes her. But we might find out that she has been stealing from other places as well." Willow said sadly.
"You do that. Xander, you go to the college and see if anyone knows a man named Jake that is a partier. We may be able to find someone that knows him and he may lead us to Dawn. Dawn has a talisman so we can't use magic to find her we will have to do it the old fashioned way."
"Got it. I'll also show a picture of Dawnie maybe someone knows her from a party." Xander said.
"Yes good. Tara, you have been up all night from traveling and looking for Dawn. I suggest you go home and get some rest before you fall over." Giles said calmly.
"I'll be okay to keep looking." Tara said.
"Sweetie, you do look really tired. You should go home and get some rest. Then you can come back and we can look around together." Willow said gently.
"Dawn might come back home to get some things when she thinks everyone will be gone too." Anya added.
"Ok. I'll go home and get a few hours of sleep and then I'll come back here." Tara said in defeat.
"I will be looking into that spell Anya, you can help me with that as well." Giles said.
"Fine by me." Anya easily said.
"Come on you two Tara I'll drop you off at the house and Will, I'll drop you off at the mall on my way to the College." Xander said as he stood up.
Tara and Willow both stood up as well and they made their way out of the shop and down to Xander's car. They all knew what needed to be done and now they had to find Dawn and get her back where she was safe. They didn't know how long it would take, but none of them were about to give up. They could just hope that they found her before she was hurt or killed. After two months of being missing there truly was no way for them to know just what she had been getting involved in or if she was even still alive. All they could do was hope they find her in time before it was too late.
