Author's Notes:

I finally went back to Sunnydale in this chapter. I wanted to go back to and write with the Buffy characters because they are so fun to tortured. *evil grin* Btw: in this chapter, it's the same day/night just like in the previous chapter. The same day/night will also be taking place in the next chapter too.

Messages To:

Showndra Ridge: Thanks for betaing this for me!

danceingfae: Yeah, Leo got scolded. I had to get him into some kind of trouble, even it wasn't that much. Don't know if he'll get scolded anymore though. You're just going to have to wait and see. :)

Darkwolf24: Thanks for catching that spelling error for me. I'll try to fix it when I can. I didn't have beta reader for this fic so I just used my spelling program I have on my computer. Now, I do have a beta reader for this so hopefully I won't have a lot of spelling and grammar errors next time.

Iniora Nackatori: Cool name btw. Anyway, I don't know if I'll have vamps show up in New York. Good idea though. I might think about it.

Other: Someone asked me to review a Buffy fic of theirs and I can't remember the name of the fic because I deleted the email that had the name of it. All I remember is it had Soul in the title. Whoever asked me could you please email me or leave a review telling me what it is again? Sorry for the trouble.

Chapter Ten: Confrontation:

Back in Sunnydale...

Things weren't the same since Buffy left. The Scobbies were tired of doing the Slayer's job of slaying the vamps, Spike kept to himself but he helped the Scobbies when he could, and as for Dawn, she finally got to help the Scobbies with their "work". Tara and Willow even showed her how to do some spells. They had to do this behind Giles' back of course, because he would never allow it. Even though Dawn was having fun helping her friends and doing magic, she still missed Buffy, and wondered if she would ever come back to Sunnydale.

At the moment, Dawn was in the living room with Tara and Willow in the Summers' home. They were teaching her more spells, just the beginning ones. They haven't taught her more advanced spells yet. Dawn wasn't ready for that.

"Just a few more tries, and then we can go onto something else." Tara said to Dawn.

"I don't think I can do this." replied Dawn with a sigh.

The two witches were teaching her how to move things with her mind. Tara had placed a pen on the coffee table and instructed Dawn to concentrate on the object. "Now, all you have to do is focus your mind energy around the pen and tell the object to come to you." Tara had told her.

"Like this." said Willow when they started. Willow focused on the pen and in a flash, the pen came to her. "See, easy." she replied as she held up the pen and then placed it back on the table.

"Yeah, easy for you." Dawn said with an eye roll.

"Come on. One more try and then will try some other spells." continued Tara.

"All right, fine." Dawn said.

Dawn tried to concentrate on the pen but her mind was on other things, mainly on Buffy. A few minutes later, the pen still remained on the table. Another sigh came from Dawn. "I'm sorry guys. I just can't concentrate on that pen for some odd reason."

Tara and Willow had a pretty good idea on where her mind was. They knew she missed Buffy because they missed her as well. The two wondered if they should talk to Dawn about Buffy's running away but they were not sure.

'Should we talk to her?' asked Willow to Tara through mind speech.

'No, at least not yet.' Tara answered. 'Let's let her decide when she wants to talk about it.'

'Okay.' answered Willow.

"I wish you guys would stop doing that!" Dawn said to them as she noticed they were mind speaking.

"Doing what?" asked Willow.

"Yeah, we are not doing anything." Tara replied.

"Oh please," said Dawn. "I know you were mind speaking."

"How could you tell?" Willow asked.

"Well, one, the silence that filled the room, and two, you two exchange looks a lot while you do it." she answered. "I mean, I've known you for how long? I know when you do stuff like that."

"Sorry," said Willow. "We just... Um..." she looked at Tara for help.

"What?" Dawn asked.

"The reason we were mind speaking is because we didn't know rather or not you wanted to talk about Buffy leaving Sunnydale." answered Tara. "We kind of guessed that's what you had your mind on Buffy instead of trying to move the pen."

"Is it that obvious?" asked Dawn with a short laugh. "I'm sorry. I just really miss her."

"We know." Tara replied. "We miss her too."

"Do you think she'll ever try to contact us?" asked Dawn.

"I honestly don't know." Tara answered.

"I know." said Willow, in a matter of fact tone. "She will contact us. You just wait and see."

That cheered Dawn up a bit. "Yeah, she will." she replied. "How about we go back to doing some spells?"

The three girls went back to the witchcraft. After Tara and Willow talked to Dawn, she felt a lot better. And spells they worked on, she managed to get them to work the first time. Dawn was having a lot of fun.

"Okay you guys," Dawn said a few hours later after they all talked about Buffy leaving. "How about we call it a night? I didn't know that doing so many spells would take a lot of energy out of me. I'm getting really tired."

"That's okay." said Tara. "It takes awhile to get use to magic, but you'll have it down soon though."

Dawn got up. "Well, night you guys." she then made a dash to her room.

Willow and Tara watched as Dawn went to her room. When Dawn was out of sight they cleaned up the mess that they had made in the living room. When they had started this teaching lesson, they had brought books of every shape and size down from the selves.

"I hope she'll be okay." Willow said as she got some books off the floor.

"She will be. Don't worry." replied Tara.

Upstairs, Dawn wasn't getting ready to go to bed. Instead, she was getting ready to go out. Dawn knew that Tara, Willow, and Giles would have her head for sneaking out but she needed to talk to someone other then the witches and the Watcher. She wanted to talk to Spike. So, she climbed out her window and headed for Spike's crept.

Spike was in his crept. He was thinking. His thoughts were mainly of Buffy. Spike really couldn't think of anything else since she left Sunnydale. Before Buffy left she came to him and told her that she was leaving. She promised him that she would contact him where ever she was going, and she did. Buffy had called a few weeks ago but Spike didn't get to talk to her much.

All he learned about her now was that she had met new friends, and that was all. She had hung up on him and Spike had not heard from her since then.

His thoughts were soon interested when he heard a noise come from the entrance of his crept. He then heard a voice call out: "Spike! Are you here?" It was Dawn.

Spike made his way towards the entrance and he saw Dawn standing in front of the entrance. He knew she wasn't supposed to be out this late. "Yeah, I'm here but what are you doing here?"

"Couldn't sleep." she answered.

"Well, why did you come here?" asked Spike. "Tara and Willow are going to freak when they find out you are missing."

"I know but I just had to get away for awhile at least they know I won't leave like Buffy did."

Spike could hear the sadness in her voice as Dawn said that. Now, Spike felt uncomfortable.

He hated seeing Dawn like this. He just hoped that she didn't ask questions on why Buffy left.

Dawn could sense that something was up with Spike. "Hey, you okay?" she asked. "You look pale. Well, paler then usual anyway."

"I'm fine." he answered, rubbing the back of his neck. "Really."

Dawn studied his face. He was hiding something but she couldn't figure out what it was. "Are you sure?" she asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Don't worry about it." replied Spike.

"Is it because I mentioned Buffy?" Dawn asked. "I guess you miss her too uh?"

"Would miss her more if she hadn't hung up on me." he had said this under his breath.

That comment was not supposed to be heard, but Dawn heard it. "What do you mean by that Spike?"

"What?" he asked Dawn.

"You said: 'Would miss her more if she hadn't hung up on me.'" answered Dawn. "Has Buffy contacted you?"

Bloody hell, he thought. Spike was in a corner and he had a feeling he wouldn't be able to get out of this one. He knew Dawn wouldn't let him off the hook that easy.

"Well? Has she?" Dawn asked again.

Spike sighed before telling her everything. He told her that Buffy came to him before she left and that she would contact him wherever she was going. Spike then told her that a few weeks after Buffy left that she did call him. Now, he was waiting on Dawn's reaction to this. He had a feeling it wasn't going to be good.

"So you knew all this time that she was going to leave and you didn't say anything?" she asked, she then continued: "That's why you were quiet that day we found out about her leaving. It's making sense now!"

"Bit, let me try to explain something..." he tried to say but Dawn wouldn't let him.

"No!" she yelled at him. "You knew and you didn't tell the others! More important you didn't tell me!"

Before Spike could explain himself, Dawn dashed out of the crept. "Damn it!" he cursed out loud. He was going to be in big trouble when the others find out his secret from Dawn.

Dawn made her way back to her home where Tara and Willow were waiting for her. "Where the Hell have you been?" was the first question that Willow asked her as she entered the living room. "We were worried sick!"

"I mean we go up and check on you, and you aren't there! No note! No nothing!" Tara yelled.

"I know, I'm sorry really I am." replied Dawn.

"Where did you go?" Willow asked.

"I went to see Spike." answered Dawn.

"Couldn't you have waited till tomorrow to do that?" Tara asked.

"No because I had to talk to him about Buffy."

Willow and Tara exchanged looks. The two cooled down a bit. Then Willow asked: "Why didn't you talk to us about Buffy?"

"I don't know." answered Dawn with a sigh. "I guess I just wanted to know how he felt about it, but boy did I get more then I bargained for."

"What do you mean?" Tara asked.

Before she could answer, Spike came running into the Summers' home. All eyes turned to him when Dawn said: "He knew Buffy was leaving!"

"All right, please calm down Dawn." Spike said to her. "Please let me explain."

"Oh, I'll let you explain," replied Dawn. "but not just yet." She turned to Willow and Tara.

"Could one of you call the others? We have a very important matter to discuss."

Tara went to call the others. The meeting was planned for tomorrow. When she came back she, Willow, and Dawn surrounded Spike. They weren't going to let him go anywhere. He was cornered.

The next day...

"You know, I'm getting really sick of these meetings." Xander said.

He, Anya, and Giles were in the Magic Shop. The other night Tara called Giles to arrange everyone to meet at the shop. Tara didn't tell him why. She had said that Dawn would explain everything.

"I mean they just end up in bad news!" continued Xander. "The last time we were called together like this, we found out Buffy was gone." he sighed. "God only knows what's wrong now."

"Maybe it isn't bad news." Anya replied. "Maybe it's good news this time."

"I really doubt it." said Giles. "Tara didn't sound so good last night when she called."

"You see!" Xander said. "He's doubtful, like always. It's bad news. I'm telling ya! Bad news!"

Anya was going to say something but she didn't have time to. Dawn, Tara, Willow, and Spike came walking in. They didn't look too happy.

"Hey you guys," said Xander as they walked in. "So, go ahead and tell us the bad news. It's bad news right?"

"Yeah, you can kind of say that." Willow answered.

"Dawn, do you want to go ahead and tell everyone?" asked Tara.

They all turned to her. "The reason why I've called you here is because Spike has something to tell you that I all ready know."

Now, they turned to Spike. He let out a sigh. Spike could do nothing but tell them the truth. He told them everything. When he was done, they waited for their reaction.

Giles was the one who reacted first: "You knew about this the whole time?" he was going to continued but Xander did it for him.

Before anyone could do anything, Xander charged himself at Spike and pinned him to the wall. He held him down with one hand while he pulled out a stake with another. "I swear I could stake you right now!" he yelled at him. "I mean we let you into out little group, we let you help us fight evil, and this is how you repay us!"

Spike pushed Xander off of him. "Buffy made me promise not to say anything!" he replied. "I'm a man of honor."

"A man," Xander said with a short laugh. "You're not a man. You're a vampire, and the word of a vampire is useless to all of us." he went on. "Tell me something Spike. If Buffy didn't make you promise to keep your mouth shut, would you have told us?"

"No, I would have kept it to myself." he answered. "Because you would keep asking questions that I don't have the answers for!" Spike continued. "Buffy needs some space so just let her have it!"

"Yeah, whatever!" hissed Xander. "You know, I need some air."

Xander stormed out of the shop. "Yeah, um... I need some air too." Anya said as she went after Xander.

There was now silence. The silence was broken when Giles spoke up again: "Do know where Buffy is?"

"No, but from what I heard she sounded happy." answered Spike. "She even said she met some new friends."

"New friends?" Willow asked. "So, does she just want to leave us behind?"

"Probably," said Dawn. "She just doesn't love us anymore. So, she left." she paused before saying: "You know, I'm going to get some air too."

They all watched as Dawn left the shop. Spike cursed under his breath. Then he said: "Look, I'm going to go." he paused. "I am truely sorry for this."

"You can go." Giles told him.

He started to leave, he was at the door when he heard Willow say: "Don't let the door hit you on your ass on the way out."

Spike finally left. He knew that the others didn't want to see him again. Personally, he could care less about them. He did however, care about Dawn. He made a promise to Buffy to keep an on her and he would. Spike just had to keep his distance.

To Be Continued...

Author's Notes: (continued):

I know this chapter is long, sorry for that. At first I was going to have this chapter put into two parts but I thought it was better to just keep it as one. Until next time...