~**~
-13-
~**~
"Xan, I need to talk to you about Rupe. You know I really like
him, but I don't think you have any idea how much." Xander was listening, but
only with half an ear as he realized what was going on with his literal other
half and her Watcher. Good – he hadn't heard it all. He agreed with Buffy on
this one, anyway. On most things, these days.
"Tell me," he hedged, trying to catch whatever he'd missed.
Willow was too caught up in her own dilemma to notice his
distraction. "I've always kinda liked him, but things were just, well,
Fantasyland, y'know. It was even more impossible than you were – at least I
wasn't half your age. It was about as likely as me buying one lottery ticket my
whole life, and winning the jackpot. But all of the sudden, I get the feeling I
may have gotten one of the small number of tickets that exist, and my odds have
improved and I could strike it rich. Only I'm afraid of the money now, or don't
know how to invest it, and, oh God, I've lost control of this metaphor, haven't
I?" The new, confidant Willow that had been emerging was now a babbling idiot,
wringing her hands and close to tears. "I really want to be with him – until I
am. Then I get all funny and I run away. He was so warm and nice there next to
me last night, and I stayed awake more than half the night because I was afraid
if I drifted off, I'd roll over and wake up in his arms, and he'd be horrified.
He couldn't possibly want me." *But he does want you, he as much as said so
yesterday,* the voice in her mind that she tried to ignore was telling her.
Xander, however, was resting his hand on her arm, and heard the
traitorous voice. "What'd he say yesterday, Wills?"
"He said that you and Buffy were impulsive, and he and I would be
the type to think about it. Then he said we should *be* thinking about it." She
sniffled, and then wailed, "And then I ran away."
"Willow, with your luck, and mine, for that matter, with
relationships, I can't blame you for being scared. How do you think G-man
feels? There's still a part of his brain that thinks he's taking advantage of a
much younger woman if he moves in on you, even though that's no longer true.
You have all these people who'd love to love you – Tara, Oz, even me, if Buffy
weren't around." She smiled weakly at that. "But you are, I know." Willow was
confused momentarily, then realized he must be responding to something Buffy
was saying in his head. He turned to smile apologetically at his best friend.
"I'm supposed to tell you it'll be a cold day in hell when you get the chance
to find out what would happen if Buffy wasn't around, and that she loves you
anyway." The witch's smile grew a bit stronger at that. "From the male
perspective, which I'm not always complete sure the G-man understands, I say if
you keep sleeping with him, let your guard down and be yourself, before long
you'll be sleeping with him – really."
Willow rolled her eyes. "Is everything about sex with you,
Xander?"
He shrugged. "Only the really good stuff."
~**~
The Summers girls were home. Dawn felt as if she'd been gone
forever, and in fact, it had been quite a while since the last time she'd slept
in her own little bed. She was a bit tired, the trip more taxing than she'd
expected it to be, but there were things she still needed to know. She might be
fourteen (well, almost fifteen), but she wasn't a stupid *child*. She could
see, even if she couldn't talk. She could hear.
Something weird was going on, and her sister was smack dab in the
middle of it. Buffy's Watcher looked different – younger. He dressed different.
For all the times he'd visited her during her hospital stay, she couldn't
remember tweed being there once. If she understood what she'd heard Buffy say
to him in the hospital, apparently there was something happening between him
and Willow, of all people. Tara hadn't visited her once with Willow, although
she and Anya had come by a time or two, in spite of Anya's loudly proclaimed
distaste for hospitals. Maybe they'd broken up. She wasn't sure, but it seemed
Xander and Anya had broken up, too. Every time he'd come by to see her, he'd
been alone.
And in spite of the pain and the drugs, Dawn hadn't forgotten the
oddly familiar stranger who'd come to rescue her the night of her injury.
And now Buffy was sitting across from her, doing her best feigned
casual, but actually looking like she was struggling to find the words to let
Dawn know her dog had died while she was gone.
Fortunately, they didn't have a dog.
The teenager picked up her chalk and scribbled furiously for just
a second, then held the board up to her sister's gaze. One word, in big
letters:
SPILL
~**~
Xander could never curse his connection with Buffy, not really.
After years of wondering what she was thinking, where she was, what she was
doing (usually *without* him), he knew. All the time. But geez, he had work to
do. Willow had just left, and now Buffy was freaking out about what to tell
Dawn about their relationship.
He sort of stepped into Buffy's mind, even more so. In his lover's
voice, he asked Dawn, "Where should I start?" *This way,* he explained to the
Buffy mind in there with his, *we know what she thinks she knows.*
Dawn erased and scribbled. Willow. Tara? Giles?
"Willow and Tara broke up," the Buffy in Buffy took back over and
explained. "It was sort of coming for a while," the Xander part pitched in.
"Now she and Giles kind of like each other, but haven't quite figured out what
to do about it." That had been Buffy again.
Erase and the squeak of chalk again. Why does Giles look like
he found the Fountain of Youth?
Buffy sighed, and Xander's consciousness shrugged. *How do we
explain this one?* Neither was sure whose question that had been. "Uhm, this is
a bit complicated." Taking turns without Dawn's knowledge, Buffy and Xander
explained Unity in sketchy terms. The girl's eyes grew wider, but her mind was
obviously going sixty miles a minute, processing the information.
Squeak. Unity was the girl who saved me when I was hurt?
Buffy nodded. Erase. Squeak. She's all four of you, but looks kinda like
you? Another affirmative nod. *I was thinking it was freaky when Buff moved
in with Willow and Giles and Xander, but this explains a lot.* Dawn frowned,
scribbling frantically. Since W and G, what about you and X?
Buffy had dreaded this question, but in spite of the way she
acted, she knew her sister wasn't stupid, and could put two and two together,
and get the complications of the four people that made up the Unity. She hung
her head. "We're, well, together now." The couple in one collectively held
their breaths. Finally, they looked up, to see Dawn grinning ear to ear.
"You're happy?" Xander asked in Buffy's voice. He was a little hurt – maybe she
hadn't liked him all that much after all.
The girl nodded enthusiastically and began to write. I'd have
been better for him, but you beat Anya by a mile. With a big ugly stick,
even. After a moments shock, the couple began to laugh in relief.
*Whew, thank God that's settled,* Xander told Buffy. *Can I go
back to work now?*
~**~
Willow left the construction site and began to wander. Somewhere
deep inside, she was chiding herself for blowing off classes yet again. Too
much Xander and Buffy in her system, probably. But she hated living in limbo, and going to class wasn't going to help
her find her way out, so class was currently optional.
She had to talk to him. Talk. To Rupe. Only the impossible was
needed. But how many times had they done the impossible, the four of them
together, and saved the world? All that was at stake right now was Willow's
peace of mind. Still, doing the impossible was easier when it wasn't quite so
personal.
She looked up, realizing her feet had once again done the thinking
for her. "The Magic Box," she read out loud. Sighing, she went inside.
"Willow?" Of course, the one time she wanted him to be back in his
office doing paperwork, he was at the register when she walked in the door.
She looked up, and the encouraging half-smile on his face gave her
hope. "We need to talk," she said softly.
"Indeed we do. Amy went to buy a drink, but she'll be back any
minute. Want to wait in my office?"
Wide-eyed, she shook her head. "I'd rather pace off my nervous
energy pretending I don't know everything in this shop like the back of my
hand, if that's okay with you."
The half smile grew to a whole one. "I completely understand. Feel
free."
~**~
"…So we talked, and decided that we both were interested, but
didn't want to rush things. We've got lots of time, after all. I think Unity is
permanent, no matter what happens with Glory." Willow popped the last of her
pizza crust into her mouth, and looked at the pleased faces of her two best
friends.
"That reminds me," Buffy exclaimed from her cozy perch on Xander's
lap. "Xander and I spent some time today explaining Unity to Dawn, and she
wants us – as Unity – to take her to her therapy session tomorrow at 10:30."
"She has therapy on Saturday?" Willow asked, surprised.
"Six days a week for at least the first month," Buffy confirmed.
"Only Sundays off."
Willow shrugged. "Fine with me. I've missed enough classes, but I
don't have any on Saturday, so that won't matter. Did you ask Rupe?"
The familiar distant look graced both their faces, and Xander
spoke first. "Fine with him, and he said to save him some pizza." He looked at
the box guiltily. "Did we?"
The witch snatched up the box with the remaining three pieces in
it. "For once, you're safe, bottomless one. You slowed down before eating
everything except the cardboard."
Xander toyed with the hem of Buffy's shirt. "I was distracted."
"Oh, yeah, Rupe and I agreed that if and when we do end up as a
couple, we would never be as sappy and disgusting as you two already are."
The couch cushion was a direct hit in the face. "I know you,
Willow Rosenberg," she heard as she caught her breath, "and you can't help
being couple-y cute. It's your middle name. Just watch."
"My middle name is Sharon," she protested, but they weren't listening.
Again.
~**~
The doorbell rang at precisely ten a.m. Joyce let the still
moderately unfamiliar girl in. "Dawn asked us to take her to her appointment
today," Unity explained in her accented velvet voice.
"She told me. Come on in. She's almost ready." They went into the
living room, and Joyce sat uncomfortably on the edge of the chair, while Unity
sank gracefully onto the couch. "Have you considered how to introduce
yourself?" Joyce asked the entity. "Unity is a fairly unusual name."
The girl smiled, a hint of Willow in the expression. "We're Dawn's
cousin, Yunni. It was her idea – sort of the feminine of Yanni." She pronounced
it "Uni."
Joyce smiled back in spite of herself. "With your coloring, you
look exotic enough to pull that name off." She noticed her younger daughter
coming down the stairs, chalkboard in hand, and she hopped up. "There you are.
All ready?" Dawn nodded. "Then you'd better be going."
The dark-eyed girl, who looked almost like Buffy, but not at all
like her at the same time, opened the door and led Dawn to the small red car.
She opened the car door to let her in the passenger side, and Dawn found
herself thinking that Unity was a gentleman, and giggling softly. The redhead
got in the other side, and placing a hand on Dawn, mumbled a few words in a
strange language.
"What was that?" Dawn heard, in her own voice, although she had
only thought it.
"A spell, to allow your thoughts to have sound. It will only work
with us, and only here in the car, for now," Unity replied. "So be careful what
you think about," she went on, Xander's laughter in her voice.
"Why?" Dawn thought out loud.
"We knew you had a lot of questions. They'd be hard to write, and
harder yet for us to read while driving. We knew that was why you wanted us to
take you to this appointment, and hated to see you frustrated."
"She's nice," Dawn thought, and then corrected herself. "You're
nice."
Unity's thanks came in a friendly smile. "What would you like to
know?"
"What's it like, all of you in there?"
"We're really one person. We all think the same things, although
the inspiration might be more Giles, or Buffy, the actual thought is had by all
of us. We feel together. If Unity is hurt, we all feel it. If Unity wants, we
all want."
"So she's a new person, sort of?"
Her head nodded in agreement. "We are an individual, a person in
our own right."
"Who speaks of herself in the plural," Dawn observed with
amusement.
"Some things we can't help," Unity shrugged.
"And when you separate?"
"Divide," Unity corrected her. "We are never really separate
anymore. We all retain the memories, and we are a part of each other all the
time. We can hear each other's thoughts, and always know where the other Parts
can be found. Two can hide from the others, if they want, although only their
thoughts."
"I'm confused," Dawn complained. "Two can hide?"
"Except when they are one, and they can no longer hide from each
other."
"I assume this makes sense to you?"
"It is hard to understand, harder still to explain. Trust us that
we are still your friends and your sister, and we all love you, very much.
We're here at the hospital, and your thoughts will once more be silent." Unity
spoke the odd language again, and thinking (to herself again) that it was too
soon, Dawn gripped her chalkboard and climbed out of the car.
~**~
The teenager was pleased. They'd allowed her to say a whole
sentence today, and although her throat was raw and sore now, the experience of
talking again had been gratifying. Not as much fun as hearing her thoughts aloud
in the car had been, but she also wouldn't want that to happen on a regular
basis – some of the things she thought should never be heard by the world.
Ben had been encouraging, too, telling her how the therapist
bragged about her in the staff meetings about her case, and making her feel
like she'd leapt a tall building in a single bound, instead of just said, "My
name is Dawn Summers." He had shown up halfway through her session, and
followed her progress avidly for the rest of the time. Walking out with him,
she let herself pretend he was her boyfriend, since Buffy apparently had her
claws in the one she'd wanted to have all along.
He was chattering, filling the holes her enforced silence left
with even more chatter, trying to keep her comfortable. Then he was struck dumb
by something, and Dawn stared at him, following his gaze to see what had so
affected him. An ironic grin twisted her face as she saw his slack jawed
response to his first glimpse of Unity.
The entity stood upon seeing Dawn, and approached the pair. "You
know her?" Ben asked the silent girl at his side. She scribbled on her
chalkboard, My cousin. "No wonder she looks like your sister," he said
absently, and Dawn realized that Buffy had claimed another victim as well.
The leather-clad redhead walked to them, and smiled at Dawn,
paying little attention to the intern. "Was it good?" she asked the younger
girl. Dawn nodded, and erased and scribbled, I was able to say a whole
sentence. Holding up the board, she saw the chocolate brown eyes shine with
genuine joy that was pure Xander. "That's wonderful," she said, in her softly
clipped tones. Dawn head bent over her board again, and when she held it up, it
bore an arrow, and the words This is Ben.
Unity looked up, noticing the handsome young man for the first
time. "Hi," she said shyly.
"Hello," he said, obviously taken by the beautiful girl. After a
few moments quiet, he stuttered, "You have a lovely accent. British?"
She smiled and nodded in response, and Dawn noticed with some surprise
that she seemed charmed by the intern. "We're…"
"Cousins," he finished for her. "Dawn told me." The two stared
enrapt at each other for a few moments more, before Dawn elbowed her 'cousin,'
tossing her head towards the door.
"Oh, yes. We do need to go. Very nice to meet you," Unity
stammered.
Ben grabbed her arm as she turned to go. "I never got your name."
Blushing (*Blushing?* Dawn thought, *What the hell is going on
here?*), the woman responded, "Yunni."
"Beautiful. Different. It suits you," Ben breathed, and with some
difficulty, the two parted.
*Oh, man. This could be really interesting,* Dawn thought, as she left the hospital with the apparently smitten superbeing. *Or really awkward. Or both.*
~**~