Title: Partners

Author: Joy

Email: SleepingBeauty2@ziplip.com

Dawn stared out of a closed window to the man outside with the violet eyes. A teenage boy appeared in front of him. The man had one arm wrapped around his shoulders. Light brown hair with curls and waves stood on the boy's head and protected his eyes. Dawn reached out to him and he to her on instinct. Their eyes met, violet and hazel. It was perfect.

"Get away from the window," Buffy shouted at her sister.

"We're fated to be together…" Dawn whispered.

Buffy's face grew angry and suddenly walls of glass entombed the teenage girl. The walls pressed in from all around. Buffy banged on the glass as Dawn stared at her pitifully.

"Stop it," Dawn yelled.

"I have to get you out," Buffy shouted back.

"You're the one that put this around me."

Buffy woke with a start and wrote down everything she remembered of her dream. She opened the book again searching for answers. If Dawn was right then she had placed the walls around her sister, then she had trapped her sister. She was not about to wake up her sister and say, "Oh by the way, I'm way wrong about the thing coming for you…" As the night wore on, sleep didn't come. She dressed and went down to where Willow had been taking notes in the dinning room. Buffy saw the words on the page in Willow's handwriting.

Panther= female power and strength

Wolf= wise teacher

Violet= royalty, spiritual

Bedroom= Concealment

Stranger= spiritual advisor

Blood= Essence, Life

Buffy looked at the symbols and attempted to push the meaning away. She wasn't ready to hear that her sister wasn't hers nor was she to be protected. She sighed and decided seeing Dawn would alleviate some of her stress. With a quick note to Willow, Buffy was out the door.

The path to Spike's seemed worn and comfortable. As she approached she remembered the night Spike had kicked her out. She was denying so much of her life these days; the dreams were nothing to get riled about. She refused to see that Spike want a relationship with her not an occasional lay. Buffy refused to look at her feelings toward him or her life. Buffy wanted her double life. The one where Spike made her feel alive and desirable and she actually mattered. She also didn't want to let down the image her friends had of her. She wanted to be the Buffy that had sacrificed herself. It was so confusing and so simple. She wanted her new life without the responsibilities of her old life.

Buffy stood at the door of Spike's crypt and knew that all she loved in the world lay inside. All she had to do was walk in and accept that free gift of love. But to love them both meant risking paining… losing her sister at some point… having Spike walk away. Instead of taking that free gift, Buffy convinced herself she was going inside to check on Dawn and nothing more.

The dark and somewhat damp inner lair was poorly lit. Spike slept motionless on the bed she and he had sex on only days earlier. It had been slower…more loving. She shook her head of the image. They did not make love, she said to herself.  They didn't make love. She noticed he was wearing a shirt rather then his normal nude form.

Dawn slept on the aerobed near the stairs. Buffy knelt down by Dawn and watched her sleep. She closed her eyes and saw the violet-eyed man face the first slayer. "You can't have her," she whispered defiantly.

"Who can't have her, pet?" Spike whispered from behind her.

They looked each other over a moment. "Nice T-shirt… Don't recall that as your normal sleep attire," Buffy quipped quietly.

"I don't normally have teenagers sleeping over… And by the way you really wouldn't know my normal sleep attire. I never have gotten you to spend the night in my bed," he said seductively teasing her arm with his fingers.

 "And you never will," Buffy responded harshly.

"Not even tonight, to guard your sister?" he asked slyly. With a huff Buffy turned away. "Buffy," Spike said taking her shoulder. "Come sleep with me tonight…" sincerely he uttered. "You willingly shagged me all night long not long ago…"

            Buffy stumbled forward. "My sister is on the floor right there…" she pointed.

"I didn't mean… I meant, sleep next to me. Let me guard your back for one night… For one night sleep and let the weight of the world fall on my shoulders," he beseeched her, tugging her slowly back towards the bed.

"Dawn won't understand," she objected even though she prompted one leg on the bed. 

"She knows we both love her tremendously. She will just think you couldn't stand to be away from her for one night…which is true."

            "Fine."

Spike got under the sheet, while Buffy stayed above the sheets. Spike slightly snickered but allowed her the marginal distance it created. Buffy soon got comfortable and let Spike spoon her back. "I got you slayer… both of you." Buffy soon fell asleep in his arms. "And one day you will allow me to make love to you… really make love to you."

Little did either know that Dawn was awake for this little exchange and Spike's declaration. Dawn knew that to make Spike's dream a reality the Scoobie crew needed a better opinion of Spike. That would be her mission while Buffy and Spike tried to protect her from a foe that only appeared in dreams. She went to sleep with dreams of match making float in her head.