Catastrophe

by

Princess McPhee

Disclaimer: I don't claim. Not mine. Bow to Joss Whedon.

Author's Note: Feedback may decide whether I finish this, so please tell me if you loved it, hated it, or somewhere in between!

Author's Note 2: I know, I know! It takes me forever to finish chapters of this. Unfortunately, real life intrudes. However, this is much quicker than last time, right?

Summary: An AU version of the events after 'The Weight of the World.'

Rating: PG-13

Spike quickly found out that getting Buffy to accompany him and Dawn to the school office wasn't at all hard. Ecstatic that her sister was going to go back to school, she didn't even complain about having to go to a meeting at eight am, though Spike swore he could she her grow a couple of inches after her morning coffee.

It hadn't taken Los Angeles social services very long to latch onto the fact that Dawn was without a parent, now. The first thing they'd done was scour the globe for Dawn's father, something that had had Buffy on edge for weeks, but luckily, they hadn't found him. Or so they said. Buffy had a suspicion they had, and he didn't want anything to do with Dawn. Since they were forced to relay their findings in the room with Dawn there, perhaps they had lied to spare her feelings.

Granting Buffy guardianship had been the natural order of things, and though they weren't thrilled that they lived in a hotel with four bachelors and Cordelia, they couldn't find anything really wrong with it. Then, when Buffy had declared her intention to homeschool Dawn, she'd seen the frowns get a little bit deeper, but since homeschooling was legal in California, they'd only basically warned her not to mess up.

Now, though, putting Dawn back in school would make things easier on all of them, except perhaps Dawn. Buffy wasn't really sure what she would do with her time since Dawn wouldn't be around to talk to and work with, but she was sure she'd find something. As soon as she was a little stronger, she was eyeing a martial arts studio down the street from Angel's as part of her recovery. Angel pointed out that he, Spike and Gunn could all spar her and probably improve on her technique ten times better than school, but it was the social aspect of the studio that drew her. Though she doubted that she would find anyone to physically challenge her, as Angel had pointed out, she had that at the hotel. At the studio, though, maybe she'd find someone to talk to. Maybe she could finally have someone other than Cordelia to talk to about girl things, and though the thought that it was replacing Willow had crossed her mind several times, every time that happened, she forced it out. She knew it wasn't true, it was just hard to convince her heart of the same fact.

So, other than the irrelevance of Buffy's mental rant, this was how they'd ended up in the Los Angeles school-district registration office, in early August, talking to the registration counselor while Dawn fidgeted in her seat, obviously nervous about the prospect of going back to school.

"Well, it looks like all the forms are in order," the counselor told them as she looked over the immunization records, Sunnydale junior-high transcripts, and general information papers.

"So, Dawn, you completed 9th grade, right?"

Dawn nodded.

"But it was at a junior high?"

She nodded again.

The counselor frowned a little. "Well, Los Angeles is on a different system. 9th grade is high school, here. But it looks like you have the background, the right classes that is, to go into 10th grade anyway.

"I'm sure she doesn't want to repeat a grade," she explained to Buffy, who nodded in agreement.

Reaching into a drawer and pulling out a piece of paper with a carbon copy, she checked several boxes, signed it, and handed it to Buffy. "This is her certificate of eligibility," the counselor explained. "You need to take that to the school, and register her for classes, now."

Buffy nodded. "Can you tell us which high school is closest to our address?" She asked. "We haven't lived here very long, and I'm afraid I don't know where it is."

The counselor nodded. "Certainly. LA is a big place, we have several high schools." She typed something into her computer, and scrolled down the list for a moment, then looked up, and spoke as she grabbed a piece of paper from a scratch pile. "It's Duveneck. This is the address." She scrolled something on the paper, and handed it to Buffy. "Good luck!"

Buffy nodded, smiled, and thanked the counselor. Then she, Spike and Dawn departed the building, heading back to the Hyperion. The high school wouldn't be staffed until the following week, so they'd have to wait until then to register Dawn.

In the meantime, they had something else to plan for.

Dawn's fifteenth birthday wasn't a big bash, since she really didn't have any friends in the area yet, but Xander and Anya showed up, and everyone brought her presents. Angel, Gunn and Wesley, clearly having no idea what to get her, had given her a gift certificate for the store where they'd seen her and Cordy shopping earlier in the summer, something that she squealed over and jumped up to hug them for.

Xander and Anya handed her a big box, and she had pulled it open immediately. Inside was a beautiful leather jacket, something Dawn was sure was expensive, but that she also desperately wanted and wasn't about to complain about. "Oh my god!" She cried. "This is so great!" Xander grinned, and Anya explained the reasons behind the gift, going into much more detail than necessary, as usual.

"Leather makes very strong clothing," She informed them, matter-of-factly. "When faced with things with claws and sharp teeth, it is the optimal thing to be wearing." She frowned a little. "Well, besides chain mail. But you can't really move very well in that, and besides, I don't think anyone makes it anymore."

Dawn grinned at her, and nodded. "Yeah. And besides, leather, like totally in style, too!"

Anya looked a little surprised. "I guess you do see a lot of people wearing it for social acceptability," she conceded upon having thought it over for a moment. "Though I suspect you will find it more useful for demon-fighting."

Buffy frowned at this, not at all thrilled at the idea of her sister joining the Summers' family tradition. But Dawn looked happy with the present, and the day, altogether, and Anya wasn't doing it to be purposely annoying, so she did her best to let it slide, and motioned Dawn on to the next present.

Spike had bought her a new CD she'd desperately wanted, and Buffy got her two presents. When she opened the first, which was a college planning guide, she'd been sure her sister was determined to get her nothing fun at all for this birthday, but then the second gift had been a book on how to pick up guys, crumpled and obviously heavily used. "It was mine," Buffy explained unnecessarily. "I'm not sure how useful it was, but it's a fun book."

Dawn had jumped up to hug her, and they had held onto each other for long moments before the younger Summers' sister got back to her presents, of which there were only two left.

She tore quickly into the present from Cordy, anticipating something good, and she wasn't disappointed. Inside a clear box was an entire make-up kit with several different shades of everything. Very sincere thank-you's were given, and Dawn looked over at her last present, a large box.

Spike and Angel rose from their chairs, and went to get it. Clearly heavy, she could see their muscles working to drag it, though it didn't seem to prove any hardship for their vampire strength. Pushing it in front of her, they reclaimed their seats, and Dawns started to rip at the paper in earnest.

Uncovering metal bars, she frowned in bewilderment, but continued unwrapping. When it was half done, it became clear what it was, and she clapped a hand over her mouth in surprise and joy. "Is it... is it... Buffy?" She asked.

Buffy nodded, unhooking the door of the crate and pulling out three books from amongst a stack of other puppy-care items- one on how to pick your puppy, one on dog-training, and one on general dog care. "Pets don't make good gifts," she explained, "so there isn't an actual puppy waiting for you. But this is all you should need to care for it, at least right away, and this is also basically permission to pick one. From all of us."

Dawn shrieked in excitement, and jumped up from her seat. Running around the circle of chairs where everyone sat as best as she could with the brace on her leg, she hugged everyone, and then returned to her seat. "Thank you, thank you, thank you!"

Then a frown crossed her face, furrowing her brow a little. "What is it?" Buffy asked.

"How... how can we afford a puppy?" Dawn asked hesitantly, clearly unwilling to risk her gift, but knowing it needed to be asked. "You know it needs vet visits, and a shots, and food, and stuff. And you don't have a job."

Buffy grinned. "Actually, I do. Angel Investigations has been getting some more calls lately, from people who've heard the Slayer is working for them, so Angel decided to make it official. As soon as I'm back up to strength, I start field work, and for now, I'm on the desks. And since we don't have to pay rent...."

"You mean...?"

"You're looking at AI's newest paid employee, Dawnie."

Dawn squealed. "Oh my God! That's so great, Buffy!" Another hug was given, and Spike was pretty sure he was going to be nauseous from the amount of pure joy in the room soon. That is, after he convinced his psyche that it wasn't just incredibly sweet. Which was, of course, something that vampires didn't think.

Lunch was fixed, and Dawn spent every moment she wasn't talking with her head in the puppy books. After lunch, Spike announced that there was a cake, but everyone, including Dawn, declared themselves too full to eat it, so they waited and ate their cake for dinner, something Buffy disapproved of, but allowed Dawn to do, since it was her birthday.

Immediately after dinner, Dawn asked if they could visit the animal shelter the next day. "You want a shelter dog?" Spike asked. "Bit, part of the deal was buying you a puppy from a breeder."

"I can't have a shelter dog?" Dawn asked.

Spike and Buffy looked at each other and shrugged. "Sure, you can, I guess. We just assumed you'd rather have a purebred puppy."

Dawn shook her head. "No. There are lots of dogs out there that need good homes. I want to give one of them a place where he can be safe and warm and loved... those puppies from the breeders will all get bought, but not all of the shelter dogs will." Her face was determined.

Buffy nodded. "It makes sense. Does this mean you want an adult dog, though? Cause you can get puppies from the shelter, too."

Dawn shrugged. "I don't know. Can we go and look, see if there are any adults that I might want, and if not, fill out the application for a puppy?"

Spike's eyes narrowed a little, and he pinned Dawn with his gaze. "You know an awful lot about the animal shelter system, bit."

Dawn flushed a little. "Well, I've kind of wanted a dog for a long time," She explained. "This means so much to me..."

Buffy leaned over and hugged her little sister. "I'm glad, Dawnie," She said, earnestly. "You could use someone to be your friend right now, and I certainly have time to take care of it while you're at school. We can go to the shelter in the morning."

She pulled away from her sister, and looked down at her, her expression much less serious now, though. "But not before nine am, you hear me?"

Dawn giggled, and Spike chuckled. "I hear you. I don't think they'd let me adopt a puppy if I showed up with you before nine am, anyway. You're scary that early in the morning."

Buffy affected a mock-indignant look. "Hey!"

Spike chuckled again, and she glared at him. He held his hands up in a placating gesture, his face curved into a smirk. "Hate to tell you this, pet, but she's right. You're a bloody terror in the morning."

In a playful mood, Buffy stuck out her upper lip and advanced on Spike, swaying her hips. Dawn watched as unobtrusively as she could, wishing she could disappear, so that Buffy and Spike could continue this moment where the closeness just seemed to flow between them, but she wasn't sure it would matter, since they didn't seem aware of her presence anymore, anyway.

"I'm scary?" Buffy asked, making her voice tremble with false hurt.

Spike nodded, and held the smirk. "Very."

She sat down on his knees. "Then how come you don't tremble before me?" She asked.

Spike flashed his yellow eyes briefly, knowing that Buffy was accustomed enough to living with two vampires now that it wouldn't phase her, and she giggled. "Cause I know I hold a special place in your heart," He stated over-dramatically, reaching one hand up to place on his chest. "You could never hurt me."

Buffy giggled at his theatrics, and then sobered, gently covering his hand with her own, smaller one. Then she leaned down and kissed his cheek softly, before rising and heading out of the room. "I'm gonna go read, Dawn," She said. "But I'll probably turn in early. Don't stay up too long, okay?"

In a daze, Dawn nodded, her eyes never leaving Spike and the purely thrilled look on his face.

"Dawn?" Buffy hadn't been looking at her, and turned to see if she'd heard her instructions. Dawn snapped out of her daze, and met her sister's eyes.

"Uh... yeah. I won't stay up too late. When can I get you up tomorrow?" As excited as she was over the possibility that Spike and Buffy weren't impossible yet, there was still a dog to think about, one that was going to be hers pretty soon.

"Um... ten?"

"Bufffffyyyyyy," Dawn whined. "The shelter opens at ten-thirty, and I want to be there!"

Buffy rolled her eyes and nodded. "Fine. Nine-thirty. And not a minute earlier."

Dawn grinned and nodded back at her sister. "Yeah! Thank you. Nine-thirty."

Buffy glared at her with mock-intensity, and Dawn pretended to be paying incredible attention. "Not a minute earlier."

"I heard you the first time," Dawn responded in a deceptively innocent tone.

The older Summers' rolled her eyes again, and smiled. "Smart-ass."

"I get it from you," Dawn quipped back.

Buffy looked her over once, and then grinned. "Probably."

"Definitely."

"Okay, okay, you win. You get your smart-ass-ness from me. Happy?"

Dawn grinned. "Almost. I will be tomorrow when you get up at nine-thirty and take me to the animal shelter."

Buffy glanced at the clock. "Well, if I'm going to do that, me and my bed had best get acquainted again soon. You'll go to bed by eleven?"

Dawn nodded. "I have to get you up tomorrow if you're going to get up," She answered. "So I'd better be up before you."

Buffy glared. "Hey! I am perfectly capable of getting myself out of bed, thank you very much."

Dawn raised an eyebrow. "You've smashed five alarm clocks since June," She replied.

The Slayer looked a little sheepish. "Well, okay, so there was that."

"Not THAT, Buffy, THOSE. As in, all five of them."

At this point Spike intervened. "Pet, leave your sister alone and let her get some sleep. Slayer, stop baiting the Niblet." He stood up and gave them both a very unserious version of the look their parents used to use on them. They both grinned, and Buffy disappeared.

"'Night!" She called over her shoulder.

"'Night!" Dawn responded.

"Sleep well, Slayer," Spike murmured under his breath, so she couldn't hear it, but Dawn did, and she grinned in satisfaction.

This had been a good day, she decided.

No, better than that. It had been a great day.

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