Part 7

Dawn walks out of the derelict building and down the stairs to the street.  Angel and the others follow behind her, still unsure of what they had just witnessed.  Dawn strides purposefully down the street towards a more populated area.

"Olivia, I'm going to find a nice police man, and he'll help find your mommy."

"Ok Dawnie, I'm hungry and I want my mommy."

Dawn stopped for a moment and looked at the assemblage behind her. 

"Unless you want to come to the police with me, I think you should all head back to the hotel," she said to them.

"Ah Niblet," begins Spike gently. "Do you mind telling us what the hell happened back there," he finishes, yelling by the end.

"I had a vision, I went, I slayed," she quipped. "Do you have a problem with that?"

"Well, as a matter of fact, I bloody well do," the blond vampire snaps at her.  "Buffy wanted you here to stay out of trouble, and it seems to me, you've done nothing but find it since I got you here!"

Spike reaches out and takes her by the arm.  Dawn tries to shake him off, but when he won't release her, she shifts her center of gravity and flips him onto the ground.

"Oh my God Spike," she said, her voice shaky.  "I don't believe I did that."  "How did I do that?"

Wesley stepped forward and addressed the scared teen.  "I'm not sure Dawn, and we'll all need to work together to figure this out, but I'm guessing that some of your "Keyness" so to speak is coming out."  "Why don't you take this child to the police as you planned, and one of us will stay with you, while the others head back to the hotel."

"O-ok," stammers Dawn, still shocked at what she had done to Spike.  "Who, who is going to stay with me?"

"Not me," said Gunn.  "If I stroll up to a cop with a missing kid in tow, I'll be in jail in a heartbeat."

"Cordy, why don't you, Wes and Gunn take Bleach Boy here back to the hotel, and I'll walk with Dawn to the police station," said Angel

"I'm not leaving the Niblet with you again, you're the one who lost her the last time," said Spike.

"I didn't lose her, she left!" said Angel

As the two vampires argued, Dawn, with Olivia still in her arms slips away unnoticed by everyone except Wesley.  Wes, watched for a second and pulled Cordelia aside.

"Will you and Gunn baby-sit these two Cordelia, I'll escort Dawn to the police."

"Go ahead Wes, with all this vampire testosterone flying around, we could be here for quite a while."

Wesley runs to catch up with Dawn and the two turn the corner onto a busy street.  Up the street was a police cruiser pulled over with it's light's flashing.

"You wait here," Dawn said to Wesley. 

He agrees, finding it a bit odd to be taking orders from a 16 year old.  He leans against a building, keeping his eye on Dawn as she approaches the police vehicle.  The two police officers exit a nearby building and start towards the cruiser.

"Excuse me, Officer," said Dawn.

"Hi, I'm Officer Nelson," replies younger of the two police officers.  She was a beautiful African American woman with very compassionate eyes.  "This is Officer Thompson."  "What can we do for you?"

"This is Olivia, and she seems to have gotten separated from her mother."

"Where did you find her, Miss?" asked Officer Nelson.

"Down on Dock St.," said Dawn.

"That's not a very nice area," said the other cop, who was older and more suspicious.

"You're right, it's not," said Dawn.  "I'm got lost and found myself there."  "There was this man carrying this little girl, and she was kicking and screaming for her mother."  "I went up to him and asked if I could help."  "He just yelled at me to mind my own business and to get away."  "I reached into my bag and told him I was going to use my cell phone to call the police."  "As soon as I said that, he dropped her and ran."  "I picked her up and ran the other way."

"Young lady, that wasn't very smart of you, you should have called the police and let us handle it," replied the older cop.

"Well, I don't really have a cell phone," answered Dawn.  "I was just bluffing."

The younger office emerged from the police car where she had radioed into the station.

"It's legit Thompson, we have a missing persons filed on a 3 year old girl, named Olivia."  "This little tyke here matches the description."

Both officers look at Dawn who was waking the sleeping toddler.  She kisses her on the cheek and hands her to the younger officer. 

"The bad man tooked me," said Olivia, but Dawnie beated him up."

"She beat him up did she," said Officer Thompson.  "Well how about if we take both of you for a ride in the police car to go get your mommy?"

"Mommy Mommy, I want Mommy!" squealed Olivia.

While Olivia was making her feelings known, Wesley took the opportunity to signal Dawn to slip down the nearby alley.  He watched as she slipped away, and then casually strolled up to the two police officers.

"Miss, we are going to have to ask you to come with us," began Officer Thompson.  He stopped; Dawn was nowhere to be seen.

"Hey, where'd she go?" he asked no one in particular.

"Oh, that young girl you were talking with?" asked Wes.  "She took off down the street," he said pointing back to where he was standing.  "Is anything wrong?"

"Stupid kid," grumbled Thompson.  "Nelson, get that kid into the back, and let's get out of here.