Title: Dawn of the Son

Author: Spichik453

Chapter 9

Daylight was passing through the windows of the headquarters when Dawn was waking up. She heard voices in the kitchen and followed them. She found Vi with a couple of the slayers and watchers eating breakfast. "Morning Dawn." Vi greeted.

"Good morning." Dawn was still blinking the sleep out of her eyes. "Is there any raisin bran?"

Caroline, one of the young slayers shook her head. "Lyle ate the last of it as a post-patrol snack last night."

Lyle, a young, inexperienced watcher, scoffed. "It wasn't me. As soon as we got back from patrolling, I was downstairs working with this Jake guy." The seven people in the kitchen all looked at Lyle, not believing a word he said.

Dawn only nodded. "Where is Buffy?"

"Scoobies are all downstairs. They saw us snooping on their notes last night, and moved to the basement." Caroline offered. "Do you think they're being a little hard on us? Making us figure out what is going on, even though they're doing the same?"

Dawn shook her head. "They were able to stop a lot more apocalypses than you guys have faced, and you guys are getting directed research. We used to do it blind."

Vi nodded. "My first apocalypse we had nothing to go on. We had to figure it out on our own."

"And by that she means, she just hung around the house learning to fight while we did the research." Dawn grabbed a piece of bread, and made a move to towards the basement. "I'm going to go join them."

"Psst, Dawn?" Lyle asked right before Dawn went downstairs. "Can you give us a hint as to what we're looking for?"

Dawn simply smiled. "Learn Junluln, or at least its derivatives."

What Dawn found when she got downstairs was not what she was expecting when they were in apocalypse mode. Giles, Buffy, Xander and Willow were all sitting around a Monopoly board. "What?" She asked upon seeing her pseduofamily.

"We're unwinding." Willow said.

"So you figured out the translation?"

Giles shook his head. "We got more. Everything after the whole mouth relocating bit is just a list of the consequences."

"So we're playing Monopoly?"

Xander said. "Killing time."

"And throwing off the other slayers. It is very convenient."

"I was going to call in sick to work while you guys play Monopoly? I think I'll head home, shower, and then hit the hospital. I owe Elizabeth for covering for me the other day."

"Don't. I've almost taken all of Willow's money." Buffy said. "We're going out for a scouting mission in a few. Just waiting for you to wake up."

Dawn sat down. "What about Jake? Is he a slayer?"

"Some of the other watchers are taking him out to see what he's learned about the cemeteries here in Seattle. But I would say, yes, we have a male slayer? Xander, did you land on Pennsylvania Ave? That's $26."

"Here's a thought," Xander said as he paid Giles, "Is he just a male slayer, a random fluke? Because everyone is talking like he is the beginning of a new slayer line. Or maybe being a slayer is now co-ed."

"It is a theory." Giles said. "There is no real way to tell unless he dies and we see who takes his place, which is not an ideal solution."

"When did he become a slayer?" Buffy asked.

"You didn't talk to him?" Dawn inquired.

"I haven't even seen him."

"He's cute."

"Really?"

"Yeah. Some of the nurses were commenting on it when he left yesterday."

"And he might be a slayer?"

"He's too young for you."

"What?"

"You like your guys several hundred years older than you." Dawn raised an mischievous eyebrow.

Before Buffy knew what she was saying, she blurted, "I'm dating Xander now anyway!"

Giles, Willow and Dawn all smiled at each other. "Ha! I knew it!" Dawn said.

"You knew!" Xander looked incredulous.

"We all did." Giles added.

Willow smiled. "You were terrible at hiding it." She turned to Buffy. "I've been giving you the I-know-what-you've-been-up-to-with-Xander face for weeks now."

"Really? You guys all knew?" Buffy asked. They all nodded. "Dawn, you've been here, how long have you known?"

Dawn shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe a couple days less than Willow? She called me like a week or so before you guys arrived telling me your behavior and we put everything together. I am your sister you know. You cannot keep secrets from me for very long."

"I can when you're across the country." Buffy attempted.

"Not when she's got eyes and ears in Cleveland looking out for her." Willow pulled Dawn into a half hug.

"So why are you guys really playing Monopoly?" Dawn said, noting that more money was being exchanged between Willow and Buffy.

Xander looked ashamed. "We found Lyle snooping at our notes. And since we want the green slayers to figure this one out on their own, I mean we're only solving it ourselves for fun and we miss you Dawny, we decided to move Scooby headquarters to the basement. Well, the other slayers saw us, was all impressed by our work ethic and instead of breaking their hearts and letting them know that we were just going to go to sleep, we decided to play Monopoly. They think we're working up there."

"Clever."

"Are you really going to work today?" Buffy looked at her sister, almost pleading for her to take the day off.

"If you guys are going to sit around playing Monopoly all day, I might."

"Don't." Buffy insisted. "After a nap, we're going to scope out the cemeteries, check out some crypts and get the lay of the land while the sun is up. And I've barely seen you Dawn."

Dawn was convinced. "Fine, but I'm going home for a little bit. I need to shower and change my clothes." She made a move towards the door.

"Oh, we made some progress on the translation last night while you were asleep." Giles handed Dawn the legal pad. "Its pretty much your standard apocalypse recipe, only we don't think it will happen at once, which means we are probably not facing a true apocalypse, but many large skirmishes between good an evil."

Dawn read through the translation. "Any idea who this daughter and son are?"

Giles shook his head. "My first instinct was that the daughter was Buffy, but she is technically not the daughter of the earth as the text suggests. Although it fits with the Jake if he is the son."

"I'm not the daughter of the earth." Buffy said. "I was given the soul of a demon. The first slayer was made, not born of the earth."

"And so we're back to wondering who it could be." Giles finished.

"And the mouth part?" Dawn asked. She was still looking at the translation notes and therefore missed Buffy's threatening glance at Giles, Xander and Willow about telling her sister their revelation. When no one said anything for several seconds, Dawn looked up, but the only thing that they offered her was an apologetic smile. "Right. I'll be back in like two hours."

"Sounds good." Buffy said. Dawn walked up the stairs backwards, watching them play the game for as long as possible before getting off on the main floor. The four played Monopoly in silence for a few minutes, the only thing breaking the silence was players reminding someone of the rent owed. They waited until they were sure they heard Dawn drive away before Xander looked at Buffy.

"Ok, remind me again why we cannot tell Dawn?"

Buffy took a deep breath and sighed. "If she knew that a Hellmouth was forming under her city, she would freak. Dawn has spent so much time lately trying to escape Hellmouths, that knowing that one was opening here would upset her. Plus, she's worked so hard at the whole doctor thing and if she knew that there was a hell mouth right here, she would devote herself entirely to battling the evil. I don't want to see that. Better she just think that there is a spike in demonic activity. We can send a couple slayers here to keep the Hellmouth under control and then Dawn won't even notice a thing."

"Except the occasional apocalypse." Xander said. "Buff, I hate to break it to you, but that is a bad idea. Dawn is in this life. She grew up with a slayer in the house. She cannot escape the monsters, and she knows it. Its not that she's running from Hellmouths its that where she ends up there isn't one, and she doesn't want people to know about this whole lifestyle thing for the same reasons that Giles was concerned about Jake leaking the slayer secret to people besides Dawn. Dawn is a big girl, she doesn't need your protection anymore."

"That's why she became a doctor." Willow offered.

"What?" Buffy was a little bit offended that he friends were telling her about her sister and that they seemed to understand her more.

"She told me. When we were on patrol with you. She told me she became a doctor so she could take care of you."

"I, I, I don't need taking care of."

Willow nodded. "Tell that to the scared high school student who was watching her sister bleed to death on a school bus because no one knew how to stop it. Tell that to the same girl two years later who watched as her sister died a third time from a sickness because you were too stubborn to go visit an Italian doctor. Buffy, Dawn has seen countless times where you have needed a doctor and it would have either saved your life or shortened your recovery time. Don't tell Dawn you don't need taking care of."

Xander took Buffy's hand and kissed the back of it. "Don't tell me that you don't need taking care of sometimes."

Buffy sighed, giving in. She looked down, not sure who to look at. She just watched as the dice rolled a three and a four, seven, her lucky number. "Giles, that's $2000 for landing on Boardwalk with a hotel."

"Damn."