See disclaimers and notes in Part 1

Runaway Trains at 3 A.M. (5/7)

"Are you sure you've done this before?"

"Yes. And hush. You're making me lose my concentration." Dawn squinted at
the padlock and slowly moved the makeshift pick around in the keyhole, and
felt the little 'click' as it loosened. Spike would've been proud.
Grinning triumphantly, she unlocked the chain on the gate, and swung it open
to the outer corridors of Coors Field. "See? Told you."

"You know, I still think this is a really, really bad idea...."

"Clark. Please." She put as much pleading and determination into her voice
as she could, trying to keep her new friend from chickening out. After she'd
seen the stadium from the 7-11 and gotten the idea, it had taken twenty minutes
of threats and begging to get him *this* far, doing something that was
blatantly illegal but completely harmless, and she wasn't about to let it go to
waste. "We already worked this out. If any security guard comes *close* to
seeing us, you'll pick me up and run. We are *not* going to get caught."

"It's not that--- well, okay, it's a little that. But I just... this feels
kind of wrong...."

"And again I remind you, that we're not going to *hurt* anything. Or steal
anything." Not unless there was a souvenir lying around which she could
pocket while Clark's back was turned, anyway. "We're just going to look
around. We'd pay to get in if it was open! Our timing is just bad, what with
it being winter and all. That's it. We'll put this back *just* like it was
when we came in, and they'll never know we were here."

She put the chain back on the gate, and the padlock in place so no one would
notice what they'd done. In the light of the streetlights and the half-moon,
she could see the worry-lines on Clark's face, and the way he was gnawing at
his lower lip. Dawn patted his arm reassuringly, then tugged him towards the
stone steps leading up to the stadium. "Will you just *trust* me? And keep your
voice down."

"... know I'm *so* gonna regret this...." She heard him mutter under his
breath as they sneaked up the steps to the main concourse.

The baseball field was silent, except for a slight breeze ruffling the
pennants over the boxes, and their footsteps echoing as they walked around
the lower levels. Four blocks away from the bus station, on the edge of the
industrial district and near the railroad yards, and they could have been in
abandoned city for all the activity they could hear or sense. All of the snack
bars were locked up tight, although emergency lights illuminated the staircases
climbing to the upper decks, and left regular pools of light around the circular
stadium's outer corridors. The place was enormous and eerie, deserted in the
way that only empty but still-used buildings were: waiting for the crowds to
show up on a moment's notice. So you got the feeling (if you'd grown up in
Sunnydale) that they might already be there, invisible and soundless, just
waiting for you to turn the right corner.

"This must be pretty cool when it's open," Clark said in a low voice. He
pointed to the far seats past the outfield, and a small strip of trees
directly below them. "There's fountains right over there, in that landscaped
area, that shoot up when the home team hits a home run. I've seen it on TV
when the Rockies play the Metropolis Tornadoes."

"Neat." Dawn jumped up and tagged a low-strung Rockies pennant with her
fingertips, giggling. "I went to Dodger Stadium in L.A., once. Years and
years ago, with my dad. Buffy was doing some skating thing with my mom, so
he took me out, just the two of us." She looked away. That was probably the
last time the two of them had done anything alone together, a couple years
before the divorce. Except that it had never even happened, really.
Sometimes she wondered if her dad remembered those things; he knew he had a
second daughter, remembered her name--- but if he didn't need to remember
stuff they'd done together, and if she didn't mention it to him, was she the
only one who knew it had happened?

She hadn't had the nerve to check that, not since she'd found out the truth
about herself. She wasn't sure she wanted to know. Would it be better if
Hank Summers remembered, and stayed in Spain because he didn't care about her
any more? Or if he didn't remember and her fake memories were the only proof
that he might have--- once upon a time that wasn't real?

"My dad tries to take me to one game a year in Metropolis, if we've got the
time. And the money. We didn't go this year, we were so busy...." Clark's
voice trailed off into a subdued tone. He reached out for the railing on the
staircase leading to the second level, and turned his face away from her.
"Our farm isn't doing well right now, so we couldn't hire any extra help this
fall. Usually I help out enough to make up for it."

Dawn hurried to catch up with his quicker steps, beating him to the top of
the stairs. "But they didn't need you to do stuff right now, right?"

"No...." Clark shook his head, smiling crookedly at her in the light from
the EXIT sign. "Dad was even talking about taking a trip to see my
grandparents over Christmas, before the fire. Then everything got kinda...
crazy. I don't know if we're still going to go." He shrugged lightly, his
voice kind of tense. "I'm probably going to be grounded for life to my
bedroom and nowhere else when I get home."

She nodded soberly and opened her mouth to agree when she heard the static
crackle of a walkie-talkie coming down the concourse, and her eyes widened.
Clark's eyes got huge enough to swallow half his face, and it would've been
funny if she could've moved. "What do we do?" she squeaked breathlessly,
flapping her arms in momentary panic. "He's almost here!"

"What do we do?! What--- I thought---" Clark looked mad, and shocked, and
then his face got all calm. Right before he grabbed her and pulled her down
and behind a stone pillar on the other side of the staircase, really fast.
She swallowed another squeak, mortified, and then used every Sunnydale
hiding-don't-find-me skill she had to remain still, her body pushed next to
Clark's to share the tiny space between the metal stairs and the ceiling
support.

"... yeah, the east concourse is clear... No, I don't see anything." A
flashlight beam played on the wall just past them; Dawn was mentally
composing her totally humble apology to Buffy along with her plea for bail
money, when it left their hiding spot and continued on, along with the
security guard. "Nah. Think it was pigeons again. Damn birds. I'm going to
do a sweep over to the other side, then down to concourse one. Meet you on
the north walk."

His footsteps receded in the distance, and after thirty seconds, Dawn let out
the breath she was holding and relaxed into bonelessness against Clark.
"Whoooooa. Close one."

"Close one? Close?! Is that all you're going to say?" Clark demanded in a
furious whisper. "We could've been caught *right there*, and you were asking
me what to do, Miss Oh-We-Won't-Get-Caught, and you are out of your *mind*,
Dawn, I can't believe I let you talk me into this---"

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, jeez, will you *breathe*? You *are* going to get us
caught if you keep spazzing out!" she hissed back.

Clark glared at her murderously, which was actually almost impressive---
except that she'd been glared at by Spike and various nasty things that had
wanted to eat her, so it was way off from being really scary. Still, on
Clark, she was pretty sure that look was a big indicator of Massively
Pissed-Off. "We should leave. *Now*," he whispered, getting to his feet and
brushing off the seat of his jeans and the back of his jacket with quick
jerky motions. "This is the stupidest thing I've ever done---"

"Clark. Calmness. Cool head. Consideration." She sounded like Giles, which
almost made her giggle before she took a deep breath of her own, brain
working overtime in order to salvage the situation. "He's going downstairs. So
we'll go up, and stay there for a while. They'll miss us completely."

At Clark's gape of disbelief, Dawn smiled, feeling her nerves steady. "Please?
C'mon. We won't get caught now. Honest. And... I'm sorry I freaked on you. I
got rattled. It won't happen again, I swear. And if we get caught I'll tell
them it was all my fault and I made you come with me and you just didn't
want me to get hurt."

Clark snorted, but she could see his mouth twitching in the uncertain light,
before he rolled his eyes. "Like they'd really buy that? Even if it *is*
the truth. Mostly." He sighed, then gestured at the staircase rising to the
upper decks. "Lead the way, O Crazy One."

She bounced on her toes and gave him a one-armed hug out of relief. "Thank
you, thank you, thank you, you won't regret this, really you won't---"

"I'll believe that *after* we're back at the bus station in thirty minutes.
With neither one of us in handcuffs."

****

Chris Kiki Chaos }|{
kikimariposa@prodigy.net