Spike really thought she wasn't going to turn up that evening. He hadn't seen her since the babysitting session with the Summers women, and it was starting to bother him. Where was she? Had something happened to her? He had been thinking about those things for way too long, feeling like a mother hen, pacing the crypt before deciding to sit and calm himself down.
She would be OK. It wasn't like she had told him she would come. Ally just dropped by when she felt like it and stayed however long she wanted. Maybe she had simply made new friends. Maybe she had plans with them.
Then why did he feel a jab in his undead heart every time he thought of her hanging out with others?
Because she will forget you as soon as she has normal friends.
That little voice in the back of his head had been teasing him all day. He knew. He knew she would rather have normal friends. She kept visiting him because she didn't know many other people. She didn't have anyone else to go to. But she had been in Sunnydale for a month so far, and that would soon change, if it hadn't already.
And he would be alone again, outcast by demons and humans, the Scooby Gang's extra arm when they needed help and there was no one else to go to. Because he was just everyone's last resort.
And he hated it.
He jumped to his feet at the sound of someone knocking on the door. It was her. Nobody else knocked, they just came barging in, broke his door, not caring about the fact that it was his home.
"Come in." He called out, sitting back down, a sigh of relief escaping his lips. She was back.
"Hi, Spike. Sorry I'm late, I had to buy something and... You know." She was just as always, a cheery smile on her face, her eyes shining even in the darkness of the crypt. She was carrying a box under her arm, covered in gift-wrap and with a bright red bow on top.
"You going to the Slayer's birthday party, pet?" He frowned, thinking back on when Goldilocks came to pick her family up. She didn't try to kill or threaten Ally, but she was certainly not friendly either. He couldn't understand why she would give her a present.
"Uh, no. Actually, I was hoping you could give her the present. I don't think she would like to see me right now, it would kinda ruin her day, but you... I know you two don't really like each other..."
"Understatement." He interrupted, giving her a dry look.
"but it would still be better than me turning up at her house. Please." She sat on the armchair, leaning against him and giving him her best puppy eyes, making his resolve crumble. "I really want to be on good terms with her. Please." She insisted, brushing her arm and leg against him.
He couldn't even hold her gaze, those sad eyes sparking in him the need to do whatever she asked for.
Bugger.
"Leave it there and I'll think about it." He muttered, low enough for her to think he was still reluctant.
"You're the best." A full blown smile appeared in her face, her arm draping across the back of the armchair, her hand resting near Spike's head. Just a bit closer.
Ally was asleep when they called. She hurriedly dragged herself to the edge of her bed to reach the telephone, only knowing one person who had her number, and if she was calling this late at night, it had to be something big. Big and bad.
"Dawn?" She asked, worry lacing her voice.
"No, it's Willow. Buffy found your number on a paper on Dawn's nightstand. I-I take it she's not there with you?" Her voice was trembling, reaching Ally in a wave of fear and concern.
"No, she didn't come here. What happened?" She sat up in bed, holding the phone tightly to her ear, her free hand gripping the sheets, ready to tear them.
"She ran away. She-she's not okay. Some things came up and she's feeling very vulnerable. We are just about to go out to search the town for her."
"I'll go too, tell me where to meet you." Ally scrambled out of bed, dressing up with the first things she could grasp while listening to Willow simply say 'The Magic Box'. "I'll be right there."
Everyone was there, even Spike, and everyone was worried out of their minds. Ally knew there was something about the whole Dawn ordeal they weren't telling her, but that was not the moment to demand answers. Dawn could be in danger. They had to get out there.
Buffy went into full leader mode once they were all gathered, splitting the group into smaller groups and giving them a role. The young brunette was assigned in her group, along with Spike, to sweep the east side of Sunnydale.
The Slayer, the vampire and the Potential were walking across a park -oh, dear, it sounds like a bad joke- and the former just kept calling out for her sister, with the other two flanking her.
"Dawn! Dawn!"
"Yeah, that should do it." The vampire's voice was dripping sarcasm. Heck, didn't he know it was not the time?
"Shut up." Both women chastised him, trying to ignore him as much as possible.
"The Nibblet scampered off to get away from you. She hears you bellowing, she's gonna pack it in the opposite direction." They all stopped in their tracks, seeing Buffy look down with a heartbroken expression. "Can't say I blame her."
"Spike!" Ally scolded. She really wanted to punch him right them, she was beginning to understand why the Slayer seemed to do it often. But then again, he was her friend, and that was just part of his personality. And there was some truth to it. Couldn't he just be more considerate? Well, he didn't like Buffy, maybe that's why...
"You were right." Buffy's voice was quiet, her gaze on the ground like a lost puppy. Spike, on the other hand, looked at her in bewilderment. "This is my fault. I should have told her."
Ally shot him a sharp look, gesturing towards the Slayer with her head. She was in pain, and he had to say something. "Look, she probably would have skipped off anyway, even if she never found out." He tried to comfort her, even if it went against everything he stood for. Comforting the Slayer, ew, it made his skin crawl. But Ally wouldn't have it any other way.
"'Found out?' I'm missing something here, aren't I?" The brunette intervened, restless. She knew something had made Dawn leave. Something everyone but her knew. Hell, she was sure they didn't trust her still, but she was there, wasn't she? She was trying to help find Dawn, and her main priority was the kid. She needed to know what was going on so she could help.
Buffy avoided looking at her, so Ally turned to Spike. He looked uncomfortable, she knew he was hiding something from her. But it was not his story to tell. Still, he couldn't just leave her in the dark.
"Slayer, she's here for Dawn. The Little Bit is going to tell her anyways, better do it yourself." The vampire walked around the blonde to stand next to his friend.
The Chosen One looked up, staring into the Potential's eyes with a fire that made her really look like a legendary hero. "You have to promise to keep the secret until the day you die. No one outside the Gang and Spike can know. Absolutely no one. Dawn's safety is at stake." Her voice was sharp, fear lingering behind every word. She was the Slayer, but she was also a terrified big sister.
"I will. I promise." She tensed up in anticipation. Dawn's safety was at stake. She wouldn't let anything happen to the teen.
Buffy looked at the vampire for a split moment, took a deep breath and made sure no one was around to hear them. "Dawn is special. She... she is more than just my little sister. She is the Key to some kind of demonic portal. She was created by some monks to keep the Key from Glory."
"The demon I told you about. Except she's not a demon." Spike clarified, taking in the varying expressions in the brunettes face.
"She's a hell god." Buffy added, not even trying to make it easier for the Potential. "And she's trying to find the Key. She doesn't know it's Dawn. Dawn... Dawn just found out. The monks made a spell to modify our memories so that we thought Dawn had always been there, that she had had a normal life. She was sent here six months ago." The blonde's voice was trembling by that point, emotion seeping into it. They were right to be scared. Ally was petrified by fear.
"And now she's ran away. She's not just a blob of energy, she's also a fourteen-year-old hormone bomb." Spike sighed, not taking his eyes from Ally, waiting for her to react. "Which one's screwing her up more right now, spin the bloody wheel."
"She's a fourteen year scared out of her mind, thinking she's not real." Ally whispered, eyes glistening with tears. Oh, Dawn, how much she was suffering right then. "We have to find her."
"We'll find her." Spike assured them both, placing a hand on the Potential's shoulder and squeezing.
"And then what?" Buffy asked quietly.
Sometime later that night, searching around the graveyard, the trio was joined by Willow and Tara, with no news of the teenager. Ally was trying to wrap her mind around the fact that her new, normal, naive friend was a blob of energy who could be used to open the door to a hell dimension, so she had been quiet for a while, which made Spike worry even more.
Xander and Giles appeared not a minute later, but no dice, so they all decided to check the hospital, in case anything else had happened to the kid, not just a hell god finding her.
Oh, shit, a hell god. And yet, she could say it was not the strangest thing to happen to her.
What kind of fucked up life am I living? She asked herself, only for another part of her mind to answer. You chose this. You could have gotten out, do what he told you, but this is where you belong. Fucked up is everything you have.
In what for Ally felt like a heartbeat, they were standing at the hospital's emergency room, Ally with her arms wrapped around her middle, looking around in hopes of catching a glimpse of the blue eyed kid.
But again, Buffy shattered her dreams by announcing she wasn't brought in. Well, at least it meant she wasn't hurt, right? Or just that no one had seen her, even if she was. Xander voiced her thoughts, only for Buffy to reflect the second part of them.
Until they heard a doctor passing by with a few security guards after him. "... found him on the floor in the break room. You guys gotta see him. His head's almost twisted clean off."
That sounded like hell god stuff. Shit.
"Glory."
A few minutes later, they all broke into a x-ray lab, where a pretty blonde in a red dress was standing right in front of the teen.
"Get away from my sister." Buffy ordered, tension tangible in the air the moment she looked at the hell god.
"Hey, we were just talking about you." Glory replied, looking completely insane with her cheery voice in such a grave situation.
Dawn took the chance to get away from the god, joining the Gang behind the Slayer, almost hugging Ally when she saw her. The elder brunette put the kid behind her, an arm in front of her to try to keep her away from the evil blonde.
"Conversation's over, hell-bitch." Buffy snapped unequivocally, jumping straight into a fight with said bitch.
Spike, who had taken another way to try to find Dawn, entered the room from another door, just to witness the combat between the two blonde women. When Buffy received a hard punch, throwing her off-balance, Spike stepped in and wrapped his arms around Glory to give Buffy some leverage. "I thought you said this skank was tough!" He exclaimed, only to be thrown aside with ease and receive a beating from the skank, ending up with him flying across the room, knocked out.
"Spike!" Ally screamed, debating between staying with Dawn and helping her vampire friend. "Stay behind Giles." She whispered to the teen before scurrying off to the bleach blond lying on the floor among medical supplies.
Ally didn't hear the conversation between the Slayer and the god, checking over the man that had kept her company for a month, her first friend in her new life. She sighed in relief when she remembered he would recover, as he hadn't been set on fire, beheaded or staked. He would be OK.
Buffy and Glory had gotten into the fight again, only for the former to shout "Giles, now!" before the Watcher shot a crossbow at the god, not even making a hole in her dress, and Xander sneaked behind her to hit her with a crowbar. Glory seemed surprised by this, but she only gave him a second before grabbing him with his crowbar against his throat, then hurling him against the Watcher, leaving both men slumped on the hospital floor.
Dawn had hidden behind a trash can of sorts, and Ally could find her thanks to the small shrieking that came from there. Willow and Tara were chanting, holding small pouches on their hands, trying to remain calm to not fuck their spell up.
"Time to start the dyin'." Glory declared, point the crowbar around the room. "Start with the whelp!" She decided and shot the metal piece like a spear.
Ally saw red. She launched herself towards her friend, adrenaline giving her a boost. "Dawn!" They had been worried sick all night, looking for her; she was not going to let that all go to waste by letting the bitch kill her. Not Dawn. They would have to go through her to get to the teen.
At first she didn't even feel the pain on her shoulder, adrenaline numbing her senses, but, a split second later, she heard Dawn scream for her.
"Get back!" Ally commanded, seeing Buffy join her sister at the eldest brunette's side, any kind of animosity for the new wannabe Slayer disappearing.
Taking advantage of the lack of pain, Ally took the crowbar out of her shoulder, while Glory took a few steps towards them. "Nice catch. Is that the best you little crap-gnats can muster? 'Cause I gotta tell ya, so not impressed." She got to the point between the two witches, who sprinkled a glittery powder all over her at once, making her look a bit like a disco ball. "Look what you did to my dress, you little..."
She was interrupted by Willow clapping her hands and finishing the spell. "Discede!"
The god burst, powder and glitter flittering to the ground with Willow, who fainted due to the energy required for the spell. Her girlfriend immediately went to her, but she seemed to recover pretty quickly.
Ally was taken by surprise when both Summer sisters hugged her tightly, wincing a bit at the pain on her shoulder but welcoming the embrace. It felt good, and she knew she was one step closer to gaining Buffy's trust, maybe even her friendship. "Thank you." The blonde whispered on her ear. "What did you do to her?" The Slayer asked, looking over at the witches.
"Teleportation spell." The witch's nose was bleeding and her breathing was irregular, but she seemed quite proud of herself. "Still working out the kinks."
"Where'd you send her?" Ally wondered, still surrounded by the sisters' arms.
"Don't know. That's one of the kinks." The redhead's face almost made Ally want to laugh.
Giles approached the witches to help Willow stand up, while Xander and Spike started to sit up, the latter looking slightly annoyed until he caught sight of the Potential, sitting up and leaving the Summers sisters to talk.
Giles was half-heartedly reprimanding the redhead about the danger of using magic that powerful, while Xander looked a bit dazed from the hit. The young Potential, meanwhile, tried to take a peek at the wound on her shoulder. It hadn't gone all the way through her, but it would definitely require medical care. Eww, stitches.
"You Ok?" The blond vampire suddenly appeared in front of her, a frown wrinkling his forehead. "You're hurt."
"Yeah, a bit. But, believe me, I've had worse. And, hey, I'm at the hospital. They'll patch me up in the blink of an eye." She shrugged, wincing at the pain the movement brought.
"I'll go with you." He decided, looking her straight in the eye. She smiled at him, silently thanking him. She didn't like stitches, so maybe he could keep her distracted while they sewed the wound.
They turned around to see the sisters hugging, obviously touched by something they had talked about, both confessing they had been scared. Everyone heard them and watched the exchange between the girls before they stood up.
"Wait. Ben. He was here, he was trying to help me. He..." Dawn paused, confused and lost. "I ... I think he might have left before Glory came ... I can't, I can't remember."
"It's okay. Don't worry about it. Next time we see him, we'll thank him." Her sister assured, spotting Ally standing next to Spike. "Will you be OK?"
"Yeah, we'll go get me patched up right now. You two go home, your mom must be freaking out." She smiled at them and headed towards the emergency room with Spike trailing behind her so that the rest didn't have to worry about her. They had had enough for one night.
"Ally!"
She turned to see Buffy and Dawn on the corridor leading to the ER, running towards her, hugging her again. She returned the hug with one arm, keeping the other clutched to her chest.
The Slayer took a step back and looked from his sister to the Potential. "I'm sorry for... threatening you. Really. I... was too quick to judge. I was scared you were coming for her." Her eyes softened when she looked at the teen, whose head was resting on Ally's good shoulder, tears staining her cheeks.
"It's no biggie. Don't worry about it." She held her good hand out for the Slayer, who didn't hesitate once before taking it.
