I was acting like a brat, and I knew it. I'd never been this way before. When I was a teenager, I never fought with my mother over silly things like curfews and clothes. But now, here I was, almost out of my teens and acting like a five year old. I saw myself through Buffy's eyes, and I cringed. But I didn't stop.

She'd come into my world two days ago, and already she'd changed everything. If I were forced to be perfectly honest with myself, I'd admit that part of the attitude I'd copped had to do with William. He was way too old for me, I knew it, but he was just so – well, so hot. And he'd been actually listening to me, not talking through me like Buffy'd been doing since she woke up. I wasn't used to be talked to like I didn't understand things, and I didn't like it.

But then Buffy showed up, and, gee, look, William is an exact ringer for her boyfriend, Spike. Great, that's just what I needed. More wonkiness to make my like complicated. Last week, I was sitting in class, and my biggest worry was what I was going to write my research paper on. Now I'm possibly wanted by the police, my sister is having panic attacks, and there are two strange British men in the next room. All because my sister woke up. Careful what you wish for, Dawnie.

Whatever. I wished I'd had some gum to snap. I kicked my feet on the bed and watched the flickering lights.

Then everything happened at once. There was a crashing sound from the bathroom. I got up slowly and made my way to the bathroom. William burst in the door and ran to Buffy. He beat me there. I looked on. She was on the floor, thrashing about. It scared me to look at her, so I went back to the bed. Maybe if I pretended like none of this was happening, it would go away.

No such luck. Buffy was better now. She stood in front of me, so instead of the television, I saw her hips, hands glued to them.

"Hey!" I said, doing my best impression of a second grader. "I was watching that!"

I wasn't actually. I didn't even know what was on.

"It happened again," she said. Yeah, Buff, I got that from the convulsions. Someone had to stop me. I needed to be smacked. I shut off the inner dialogue. "I need you to tell me exactly what happened before I woke up in that hospital."

I sat up and looked from Buffy to William and back again. William looked more scared than Buffy did. She just looked determined, and a little disheveled. She was still a force to be reckoned with. Plus, she was still my sister, and I still loved her, brattiness aside.

"Do you think this is my fault?" I asked, worried.

"I don't know, Dawn." Buffy said. "I would say probably not, but I don't have any idea what's happening, or what has happened before. That's why I need to know exactly what was going on before I woke up."

I thought back to Monday. It had been a normal day. "Buffy, I don't know." I said, and thought harder. When you sister suddenly rouses from catatonia, everything that happened before seems a little bit less important.

"It happened quickly," I said, trying to remember details. "I talked to your nurse, and she said you were sitting on your bed. So I went in to see you. You never showed an indication that you knew people were in the room with you, and it wasn't any different."

Buffy nodded. "So you went into my room. What then?"

"Sat down. Talked to you. Just the usual. I gave you your present. I bring those a lot, I'm not sure why –"

Buffy cut me off. "What did you give me?"

"I guess you'd maybe call it an orb? Round, shiny, pink. It was pretty." I wondered why it even mattered, but figured it must, because she kept pursuing the topic.

"How big was it? Was it opaque? Transparent? Where did you get it?"

"I didn't measure it, Buffy." I sighed. "It was about the size of a baseball. Translucent, but not completely see through. I got it on the street. A craft sale kinda thing."

"You don't just buy orbs off the street, Dawn!"

"Sorry, but I don't really have a reputable orb dealer." What the hell was she on anyway?

"Sorry." She apologized, then went straight back into the rapid-fire questions. "Okay, so, you gave me the orb. Did you put it in my hands?"

"Yeah."

"Then what?"

"Well, then you looked at me. Like, really looked at me, and not just an open-eyed catatonic stare. It was kinda freaky."

"That's all? You didn't say anything to me?" She was blaming me. And it was so not my fault.

"No, I didn't say anything. Just orb, hand, flash of light, welcome back, Buffy."

She stopped to consider that a moment. Then she tuned to Giles. I hadn't even seen him come in.

"Giles," she said, "I saw a flash of light when I was driving. And Dawn says there was a flash of light here when I woke up."

"Buffy," Giles began, "I'm certain that whatever happened to you must be in some way supernatural, but I think you're overestimating my expertise on the subject. I think you're on the right track, but I dare say I'm as lost as you are at the moment."

Buffy looked confused. I could tell she was expecting Giles to have answers for her. "Oh." was all she said. Then she turned back to me.

"Dawn," she asked, "Where is the orb now?"

"I don't know." I said truthfully. "I think it must still be in your room at the hospital, because I don't remember picking it up."

"We need to get it back."

Giles, William and I all spoke at the same time.

"Buffy, I'm not sure that that's a wise idea…"

"We can't go back there! They'll lock you up again!"

"Right, we'll break into a possible crime scene." Giles must have filled him in a little, because he seemed to know what was going on now.

"One at a time, please? Giles – I need to get that orb, and it's in the hospital, therefore, we go to the hospital. S-William, I'm not suggesting breaking in, and you don't have to come if you don't want to. Dawn, don't worry. They won't lock me up again, I promise."

"So, do you have a plan, then?" I asked anxiously.

"I'll make one up."

Great. Somehow, I knew this was going to turn out badly, and we hadn't even set off yet. I was pretty sure I'd be driving the getaway vehicle, though. One thing I could say for Buffy – she sure made my life a lot more interesting.

* * *

We waited until after visiting hours to go the clinic. It would have been possible for Giles or William to just walk in, but we thought they'd probably be watching Buffy's room pretty closely. We were going to have to be sneaky about it.

I was about three parts nervous, one part excited. I'd never even gotten a speeding ticket before. Before we'd left, I'd been annoying Buffy with all of my questions.

"Are we going to wear ski masks?"

"No. But we should dress inconspicuously. If anyone sees us going in, I don't want to be easily identified." She must have done things like this a lot.

"Oh." I tried not to sound disappointed. "Well, can we carry walkie talkies?"

"No! Dawn, this isn't Mission: Impossible!"

"Sorry."

"Who's going in? All of us? Cause I'm not sure it would be a good idea for Giles to crawl in a window. Old bones and stuff." I was kind of bouncing on the bed. I think it bothered her.

"I'm going in. Just me. The rest of you are going to wait in the car. And you're going to leave if I'm not out in twenty minutes."

I wasn't going to let her get away with that. "You at least have to let me come with you. Think about it, Buffy. I know that place, and you don't. Also, I know what the orb looks like. I mean, maybe you'd go in there and take someone else's orb, and no your own."

She rolled her eyes. "You do have a point about me not knowing my way around, though."

"I know." I was going to get to go, I knew it!"

Buffy sighed. "I don't want to get you arrested, Dawn."

"I don't want to get arrested, either. We just won't get caught."

"Okay. But if you're going in, William has to drive, in case we need to get away fast."

"Deal!" I said. And thus began my life in crime.

When we got to the hospital, Buffy and I got out, and Giles and William went to drive around. We didn't want to park the car, because for one, the parking lot was too far away, and two, it wouldn't be a great idea to be seen parked there. It was pretty much empty, save for a few cars of the nurses who worked the overnight shift.

For the first time in a few days, I was the one doing the leading. Buffy followed me as we walked quietly through the damp grass. "Here," I said, pointing. "That's your room."

Luckily, it was on the first floor. The window couldn't have been more than three feet off the ground. I wasn't up to scaling any buildings. Breaking into buildings, yes, I was all for it. But I wasn't Spiderman, and I was afraid of heights, too.

The window was closed, of course. It wasn't even supposed to be open in the first place; someone must have made a mistake the day Buffy pulled me through it. It must have been an old window. It struck me as odd that any window in a mental institution would open easily into the outside world. There wasn't even a screen on it.

I had no idea how Buffy planned to open the window from outside the clinic. I was about to ask her how she was going to do it, but as soon as I opened my mouth to speak, she'd placed her hands on the window, pushed inward and up, and it was open.

"Whoa." I said.

"Slayer strength." She smiled. "Comes in handy for changing tires, too."

Buffy hoisted me up, and I squeezed though the window. The room was dark, and appeared to be empty. I looked around, trying to get my eyes to adjust. Buffy climbed in after me, and stood behind me.

"Where do you think it is?" she whispered.

"It it's still here, it should be under that bureau. I think it rolled there when you dropped it." Being in the room was helpful in clearing up the foggy memories I had of those insane minutes.

I got down on my stomach, and peered under the chest. There it was, just an arm's length away. I reached out my fingers to roll it towards me. The moment my fingers made contact, I felt electricity buzzing through my veins. Startled, I pulled away. At least I'd managed to move the orb closer.

"Buffy?" I said in a low voice, "I don't think we should touch that thing."

She got down on her hands and knees next to me, and stared at the orb, which was giving off a soft pink light. It was now halfway out from under the dresser. "What happened?"

"I think it bit me." My fingers were throbbing where they'd touched it.

"That can't be good." Buffy wrapped her fingers in her shirt and picked the orb up. "We need to get out of here, and get this to Giles."

I heartily agreed.