"Hey, Dawn?"
"Yeah, Buffy, what's up?"
"I'm headed out,
you want to come with me?"
"Sure." Dawn said, grabbing a
denim jacket. She asked as they walked out of the house without
saying goodbye to anyone. "What about Grandma and Grandpa?"
"What about them?" Xander asked Dawn.
"Buffy it's not like you to leave without saying goodbye."
"Dawn, I don't need you questioning everything I do, okay?"
"Whatever; where are we going anyway?"
"Angel's."
"I thought you guys were fighting."
"Dawn, stop questioning me!"
"Fine." Dawn replied making a point to snap her mouth shut and close her lips tightly.
"Dawn, stop acting like you're three." However, Xander's plea fell on deaf ears.
While they walked in silence, Dawn kept glancing toward her sister. Every few steps, Dawn would open her mouth to ask something, but then closed her mouth and turned away. Finally when they were only yards from the hotel, Dawn couldn't stop herself. "What is wrong with you? You've been really weird since the other night when you snuck off to see Angel."
"Dawn, I don't know what you're talking about." Xander replied, not noticing the new addition to their party. "I never went to see Angel."
"I heard you and Faith talking the other night, remember. That wasn't the first time I eavesdropped on you two. I wish you would tell me why you and Angel are fighting, I don't need to be protected from you two, you know."
"Maybe you don't need protecting from them, but what about me?" Asked their mystery companion.
Dawn and Xander turned to see who was following them. When Xander saw it was a vampire, years of fighting them went out the window, and he ran for the hotel, Dawn chasing after him.
"Why are we running?"
"Do you want to get eaten?"
"Buffy, what's the matter with you? You can't fight one vampire!"
"Dawn stop questioning me!"
"But it's one vampire!"
"And we're already at the hotel." Xander said, pushing Dawn into the hotel lobby.
"You can face a hell god, but a vampire scares you?" Dawn asked catching her breath, leaning against the door.
But before Xander could catch his breath and respond, the office door opened revealing Faith and Buffy(as Xander). Buffy ran to her sister's side, and hugged her tightly. Then Buffy held her at arms length, checking her for any kind of injury. "Dawnie are you okay? How has your day been? I… Xan… how was you stay at your grandparents?"
"God, Xander, you're clingy, get off of me! Would somebody get him off of me?" Dawn yelled, as Buffy let go of Dawn, looking hurt.
"Dawn, why don't you go wait in the office." Faith said, looking every bit like a Slayer in charge of a battle.
"Who died and made you boss?"
"A crass person might say your sister, but I'd rather you just go in there and let us explain when we know what's going on, okay?" The rest of the people in the hotel were by now wondering into the lobby, to see what was going on.
"Buffy, do I have you?" Dawn said turning to Xander.
"We'll be in a minute." Xander, said nodding his head.
"Fine, I'll be in the office." Silence reigned until the office door closed. Then Buffy(Xander's body)looked to Angel. "Would you watch her? She tends to snoop."
"Sure." Angel said, slipping into the office.
"So long time no see, Xander." Buffy said, her voice deeper than it should have been, but like ice.
"Wasn't my choice, now was it Buffy." Xander said, taking a step closer to Buffy.
Inside the office, Dawn looked at Angel, "What's going on out there?"
"I'm sure someone will explain it to everyone else as soon as they figure it out."
"Xander, I'm not going to apologize for leaving!" Buffy's deep voice carried into the office.
Stepping around Angel, as if being closer to the door would give her more answers, Dawn listened at the door. "Why is Xander talking to himself in the third person about something Buffy did?" Dawn muttered, stepping away from the door, toward the desk chair. She sat at the desk, turning the chair every now and then, absent mindedly as she thought. "Buffy doesn't say goodbye to the Grandparents, she runs from a vampire, and now…"
"Damn it Buffy, I will not be yelled at like I'm a little kid! Willow and I did what we had to after you threw yourself off that tower. You may think you took the way of the hero, but you left us to make sure the world didn't end while you were dead."
"…and now Buffy and Xander are having third person arguments about what the other person did. This day is just getting weirder."
"I didn't jump to save the world; I jumped to save my family, my sister!"
"What good did it do you, huh? Instead of you being left without a family, you left Dawn without a family."
"Dawn would have grieved and moved past it, she would have settled down and had a family of her own. She could have had a life! I would have lost the only chance I had at having a family. I don't expect to ever get married or have kids, but Dawn will."
"Angel, what is going on? I don't get it, it's like they switched bodies or someth…" She said popping up from the chair. "They switched bodies! Buffy is Xander and Xander is Buffy! That explains everything, oh my God, they switched bodies!" Dawn said rushing for the door. Angel blocked her path, sidestepping in front of the door.
"Dawn, I don't think now is the best time."
"Now is the perfect time. The only reason I'm stuck in here is because they think I don't know, but now I do so I can go back out there." Dawn said, worming her way past Angel.
"You both switched bodies. So now you're Xander," Dawn said pointing to Buffy's body, "and you're Buffy," indicating Xander's body.
"You told her!" Buffy said turning on Angel.
"She figured it out on her own! She's smart, I didn't say anything."
"Maybe she gets her brains from your Watcher grandparents."
Buffy (in Xander's body) turned sharply back to her own body with a look that could kill. "You will do anything to hurt someone won't you?"
"I thought you might have told her, that your secret is more of a family secret."
"Wait a minute, I'm confused!" Cordelia piped up.
"Well that makes two of us. Care to explain, Lizzy?