Title: Dawn verses Angel

Author: Joy

Email: SleepingBeauty2@ziplip.com

"Well that was different," Cordelia said as Angel went to take Spike's seat.

He was greeted with a hateful stare from Dawn. "Okay, I'll just be moving this chair over here."

"Why don't we just switch seats?" Buffy suggested. "…Hey. Lighten up," she whispered to her sister.

Gunn looked at Angel and asked, "Why does she hate you so much?"

Angel went to answer but Dawn beat him to the punch, "Because all the memories I have of him involve a great deal of pain for my sister and our family…" Dawn turned her attention to Angel directly, "The people that you work with see you as this great and noble guy that left his one true love to fight the good fight. All I see is a coward. You'll never be noble in my mind…"

"I just think it's interesting that you're the one with the soul, supposedly, but Spike's always treated us better. I mean, even when he was trying to kill Buffy… it was all about the fair fight. You were always messing with our heads. Even when you were 'good' you were like that… It just cracks me up that Buffy is supposedly your one true love and crap like that, but a 'soulless demon' can treat her better and has treated her better then you ever could."

The look on everyone's face was priceless. Buffy's eyes were big but she just rocked the baby not commenting because she really couldn't argue with most of it. Willow uncomfortably looked at Angel with some sympathy but wasn't about to come to his defense, none of the Scoobies would.

Angel looked at Cordelia for some guidance or support. "Hey. You're on your own guy. I can know that its better the way it is now, but when you put it like that… It does kind of look like you two should never have been together in the first place."

His eyes went big and he opened and closed his mouth like a fish. "Dead boy is going to lose it," Xander ventured to Anya.

"Now if I had said what Dawn said, I'd have gotten yelled at," Anya pouted.

"Yes honey, because you say things like that so often… Dawn on the other hand leaves her tirades to moments when they have the most impact," Xander replied as Buffy stood. The baby had begun to fuss and the tension between the people on either side of her was palpable.

"Buffy," Angel said catching her attention as he stood up. "You don't believe that, do you?"

Buffy looked at Connor, who was now cooing at her. "I think from what the Powers have shown to me, Cordy is right. But that doesn't change what has been… How about we move on to a more constructive topic?"

"I think that was very constructive," Dawn smirked, met by the angry eyes of Angel and the frustrated ones of Buffy.

"You're not helping," Buffy chastised her sister.

"So what? Not one ounce of defense from you about what she said?" Angel asked Buffy not caring whose attention they were drawing. Lorn spotted the scene and went to get Spike to cool things off.

"Look, she has been caring that around, literally, her whole life. Now maybe she can see you as something other then the big mean vampire that broke her sister's heart a variety of times and ways," Buffy said as she rocked the baby.

"I doubt it," Dawn muttered with her arms folded.

"Hey… give it a rest. You got to vent at him. What more do you want?" Buffy snapped at her sister.

Dawn stood and looked Angel in the eyes as angry as he was. "I want him to admit that he was awful and I want him to admit that Spike is much better at loving you then he was."

"No," was all Angel ground out.

"That's asking too much, Dawn," Buffy stated.

"Just be happy their not having a turf war like Riley and he did," Xander said with a laugh. Glares were sent in his general direction. "I'll shut up now."

"That's exactly what I mean," Dawn growled at Angel getting only an inch away from his nose. "She's not yours… Get off your high horse and stop pretending that Buffy is your property or wife or whatever…You Chose. You walked away. Let her go." Angel started to growl in an animalistic way.

Spike arrived at that point and took Dawn by the arm. He pulled her out of Angel's face as Buffy moved over to Cordy to hold Connor. "What's up Bit? Happy fun night, remember?" Spike quipped as Dawn continued to glare at Angel. Spike shook her gently to get her to look at him. "You've more then said your peace. You wanted to, you did it. And not the right way… Now go on over to the bar and tell Lorn to make you a drink- something not alcoholic."

"He acts like he's God's gift to the world… Like he has some claim on Buffy that no one can break," Dawn fumed.

Spike spoke softly stroking her cheek with his thumb, "He does, pet. He will always be Buffy's first love…"

"But he wasn't family, Spike. He wasn't anything but the evil outside our door, even when he was good," she pouted. "I want him to let her go… You're family, not him."

Spike drew her into his arms and stroked her hair the way he did with Buffy. He looked over at Angel who looked completely shame faced. Spike kissed the top of Dawn's head as Angel sat down. "He has LilBit. He has… Hasn't tried to eat me or anything, right? No trying to run me off or made any threats… I'm not going anywhere, Nibblet. I'm family. He can't take that away…He has his own family now."

Spike pulled away a little to look in her eyes, "But you need to let this go now, okay? Because as much as it may turn my stomach, he is the only family I have from the vamp realm that's not crazy. And from time to time we may need each other's help. We're on the same team here, pet. Besides, I know how much you love Lorn and will want to visit. But there is no way in hell I'm going to let you stay here… You'd end up staying with Angel. I trust him with your life. And that's saying something isn't it?" At that Dawn smiled and got a big hug.

The rest of the crew sat in silence absorbing all that had just transpired. Buffy looked up at Dawn and Spike with a huge smile that showed to all how much she loved them both. Angel let out a breath and gathered his son in his arms. He held the little boy close and got a half smile from Cordelia to cheer him up. Spike let Dawn go and scooted her off toward Lorn.

Spike turned around to face the amazed faces of most and the beautiful smile of Buffy. He touched her face and smiled endearingly. "Come on Angel. We're going to go make sure this is settled. Bring the baby as protection," Spike said laying a hand on his Sire's shoulder.

Angel sighed and walked with Spike toward Dawn. He stopped them short. "I… Thank you… You didn't have to make me look like an okay guy. You could have left it with I have my own family now."

"Yeah well," Spike shrugged. "Can't have her in your face every time you're too close for comfort to Buffy… Besides, you could've been a real bad ass about me and Buffy and you weren't. I know it doesn't make you happy, but you didn't try to rescue her from me."

"Not that I didn't think about it?" Angel said smoothly with a smirk.

Spike smirked back, "Noted, mate… I'll be back stage. You go be the grown up and apologize to her for the sins you committed against her even though she wasn't really there… But the same rule applies to her that applies to Connor. You hurt her, I stake you."

"Got it," Angel said. He looked at his son for a minute. "You still like me, right?" Connor promptly giggled at his daddy, making all right with the world.

Lorn stood behind the counter talking to Dawn. "So the priest comes in to 'Sanctify' the place, sees me and runs screaming… Oh, hi Angel."

Dawn turned to look at him half annoyed, half confused. She thought they were done. Angel looked at Lorn then Dawn then to Connor. "Ya want to hold him?" he finally came up with.

Dawn was now thoroughly confused. "You didn't just shake him up so he'll throw up all over me?"

Angel broke into a laugh, "He's not a soda can." He noticed a look of fear in Dawn's eyes. "What's wrong?"

"Ah… Nothing!" she said quickly.

"Yes there is… I came over to apologize and I've already messed up," Angel grumbled to his son.

Dawn couldn't help feeling somewhat sorry for him. "It's the laugh." Angel looked at her with confusion. Dawn bit her lip, "When you're little you associate moments with actions… The only time I've ever heard you laugh was when you kidnapped me… You laughed at Buffy's terror… You laughed at my terror."

"Oh god," Angel said swallowing as the memory flooded into his mind. "I'm so sorry."

"I've tried to tell myself that those things didn't happen… but to me they did. Even if they didn't happen, they were built into me to help form who I am and how I act," Dawn said quietly.

"I can't pretend that if you were there I wouldn't have jumped at the chance to torture you to get to her…" Angel replied. "I am sorry though… I know you hate me and I guess you have good reason to… I don't know if you can understand this but Buffy gave me a reason to live, everyday for so long. It's hard to hear how awful you were at loving someone who meant the most to you… But I promise, I'm not going to interfere with Spike and Buffy. As hard as it is for me to admit, I'd rather her happy with him then miserable with me… I wanted her to find happiness. That's why I left."

Angel hugged Connor then laid him in Dawn's arms as she looked at him in wonder. Angel looked down at Connor in Dawn's arms and said, "Your mom asked me to leave… She knew Buffy was to young to realize what she was giving up by being with me… It is ironic that she ended up with Spike though."

Dawn giggled, "Mom loved Spike. He would come by her gallery and they would talk art. He'd come over and have hot chocolate with us… I guess that's probably the reason I'm so much more accepting of Spike." She looked a little guilty as she said the last part. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have yelled at you in public… I should have confronted you in private, like Spike said to."

"It's okay," Angel said stroking Connor's cheek. "And I understand about Spike. He's been there and put his life on the line for you a lot. I haven't… He loves you about as much as he loves Buffy."

"I know," Dawn said a little teary eyed. "I just didn't want you coming in a wrecking everything when things finally started getting nice again."

"It was awful when Buffy died," Angel ventured.

"Yeah… The Buffybot had to fill in so the Social Workers wouldn't take me away… plus the recent Willow magic addiction, ugha," Dawn said sticking out her tongue. "I got my arm broken with that one."

"Buffybot?" Angel asked.

"Not something we should probably go into," Dawn said with a smirk.

"Why?" Angel eyed her suspiciously.

Dawn just smiled brightly at the baby in her arms, "Your daddy doesn't know when to let something go for his own good." The baby laughed. "You think that's funny? How bout this?" Dawn lifted up his little shirt and blew raspberries on his belly.

Connor laughed outright. Angel was in shock and full of joy to watch his son laugh hard. "Do that again," Angel said. Dawn blew again on the baby's tummy and Connor laughed hard again. "That's amazing," Angel muttered.

"Good thing about teenagers," Dawn said with a smile sitting Connor up in her lap. "We do know the tricks in babysitting."

Angel smiled at her brightly then got serious. "So are we good?" he asked a little nervous.

Dawn nodded confidently. "We're good," she said as she passed the baby back to him. "You don't mess with my family, I don't mess with yours."

Angel smirked at her attitude. "Kid, you may have your own backbone and tongue, but they definitely resemble Buffy's backbone and Spike's tongue."

Dawn laughed, "Thanks."

Lorn interrupted, "Dawn… sorry Angel, I take precedent… The person I wanted you to meet has just arrived."

Angel got off his bar stool, with son in hand, "That's okay, I was going to rejoin the table and show off the new trick Dawn taught me."

"Alright, where am I looking?" Dawn asked as Angel departed.

Lorn smiled and said, "Not far."

A teenage boy started approaching Dawn, with brown hair that hung down into his eyes. There was something very familiar about him that Dawn couldn't place. He stood about four inches taller then her as he looked down at her with amazingly beautiful violet eyes. "Hi… I'm Wolf."

TBC