Catastrophe
by
Disclaimer: I don't claim. Not mine. Bow to Joss Whedon.
Author's Note: This chapter has a lot of cooing over my imaginary canines, but please, put up with me for a little while. It's cliche, but it's just so cute! And yes, there is a point, and they will play a part in the plot later.
Summary: An AU version of the events after 'The Weight of the World.'
Rating: PG-13
Buffy did indeed arise on time the next morning, but only because there was still a power greater than the Slayer in the universe- the whining of fourteen-year-old hyper-excited younger sisters. "Ugh," she groaned as she rolled over in bed and forced her eyes open, trying to focus on a blurry image of Dawn, who seemed to be jumping around in her vision. "Hold still!"
Dawn, unexpectedly obedient, stopped moving, and Buffy raised a hand to her temples to rub them hard for a moment, before throwing herself out of bed. "Okay, I'm up. You can go away now."
Dawn grinned at her, clearly too happy to be brought down by her sister's foul mood, and sing-songed her answer. "Ok-ay!"
Spike was awakened by similar treatment. "Bloody hell! What are you doing in here?!" He questioned as Dawn unceremoniously ripped the covers off his sleeping body.
"Waking you up, of course!"
He groaned, then sat up and rubbed his head like Buffy had, and Dawn laughed. He looked at her, wondering what was funny, but too tired to put any energy into it. "Why?"
"'Cause you're coming with us to pick out my dog, of course!"
He looked up in surprise. "I am?"
"Yes!"
Despite the early hour, Spike began to smile. Bloody hell if it didn't feel good to be included. Not that he'd ever mention it, of course. He was still a big strong vampire, and he wasn't supposed to have feelings. At least not of the soft, fuzzy forms. "How are we supposed to explain that I can't go in the sun, Bit?" He asked gently, hoping not to disappoint her too much.
"We tell them you have that weird disease, where you burn to a crisp really, really fast." She giggled. "They'll never know we mean literally, not just your skin!"
Spike shook his head, half at the genius of the fourteen year old and half at her hyper-excitement, then threw his legs off the side of the bed. "Okay. I'll be ready in a few minutes, alright?"
Dawn nodded. "I put blood in a cup in the microwave. Just heat it up when you're ready to eat, okay?"
He glanced over at her as he pulled clothes out of his dresser drawer. "You did?"
She nodded.
"Thank you, Niblet."
She just nodded again, and skipped out of the room, leaving Spike shaking his head, wondering where even humans got that much energy at nine-thirty in the morning. Before he could even fully form his thought, though, she stuck her head back into the room and delivered one last tidbit of information.
"Don't eat the toast, cause it's Buffy's. She'll try and give it to you, 'cause yuo know she doesn't like to eat in the morning, but she needs the calories or she'll never wake up. And don't drink all the coffee, or I'll be mad." She grinned unthreateningly and disappeared once more, and Spike shut the door to change into more suitable going-to-pick-a-furry-pet clothes. Which of course, he found that owned none of, since his wardrobe was 99% black. Sighing, he decided he'd just have to deal with pet hair.
Buffy looked exactly like she'd just rolled out of bed when Spike appeared in the kitchen. She was dressed, but her hair was a wild mess, and she was nibbling toast with an absent look in her eyes and drinking coffee mindlessly. Angel was nowhere to be seen, and Spike supposed that he, like most vampires, wouldn't be up until the evening. Still, he couldn't bring himself to mind that he was awake during the daylight hours, like he usually would have, because Dawn wanted him there. And as much as he would never, ever admit it, that meant a lot to him.
Dawn bounced into the room just as Spike was pressing the buttons on the microwave to heat up his meal. "Almost ready?" She chirped, and he nodded.
"Give me a minute to eat, pet. And let the caffeine wake your sis up." He grinned, and Dawn grinned back, both of them knowing that Buffy before noon was not a pleasant sight, especially if she hadn't had her usual gallon of coffee.
"'Kay. I'll be back in a few minutes, okay?" She didn't wait for an answer, but left the room, and Spike could swear she was almost skipping.
When she came back, she had a black leash and collar in one hand, and two tags in the other. "Where'd you get those, Niblet?" Spike asked, curiously.
"From Angel. I found them right outside my door when I got up this morning."
"Where'd he get them?" Spike asked, wondering when the elder vampire had had the time to go out.
She shrugged. "Dunno. Doesn't matter, though."
Dawn stood still for about thirty seconds, before she started bouncing back and forth from foot to foot, obviously more than hyper-excited about the trip they were going to take. "C'mon!" She whined. "It can't possibly take that long to eat breakfast!"
Spike laughed, and Buffy just gave her sister a glare, though it held no real anger. "Pet, give your sis a moment to wake up," the vampire told the younger Summers.
"She's already had twenty!"
Spike laughed again, shook his head, and finished his blood. Taking to cup to the sink, he snagged Buffy's dishes on the way by, which she protested sleepily, and did them all quickly. "Ready to go then, girls?"
"Yes!"
He looked over at the Slayer. "Need to bring anything along, love?"
Buffy shook her head, and put her hand in her pocket, appearing slightly more lucid than a moment ago. "Nope. I got a check to write for the adoption fee, proof of residence, some miscellaneous stuff we might need. Dawn's got the collar, leash and tags. I think that's it."
"Okay! Let's GO, then!"
Laughing, the older two followed the bouncing teenager out of the hotel. Spike stood under the eaves as Buffy went around to get the car, and then wrapped the thick blanket over himself and made a dash for the car door that Dawn had opened and then slammed behind him once he'd entered. The back windows were heavily tinted, and if he sat right, he didn't need to wear the blanket over his entire body while they drove.
The ride to the animal shelter was short, and they got there right as the doors were opening. The staff at the front desk smiled as they saw Dawn, trailed by the two older people enter the building, clearly extremely excited. "Can I help you?"
The lady at the desk who had asked the question was older, around fifty or sixty, and overweight, with a bright smile, which Buffy returned as best as she could. Dawn gave a blinding grin. "Yep! We're here to look at the dogs."
The woman's smile didn't desert her face for even the briefest of moments. "Well, then, you need to fill out the adoption form" she pushed it to the front of the desk, where Buffy stood, "and then go look at the dogs!"
Dawn fidgeted as her sister filled out the address and name part of the form, but ended up standing over her shoulder as she filled out the categories as to what they were looking for. "Okay, requirements..."
Dawn looked over the boxes that could be checked. "Nothing, really. Nothing that's on that list, anyway."
Buffy nodded, checked the box marked 'none of the above,' and moved on. "Age?"
The younger sibling pointed at four boxes. "Young puppy, the one that says '9-12 weeks,' the '12-20 weeks' box, and the next two. The ones that say 'adolescent: 4-12 months' and 'young adult: 1-3 years.'"
Buffy nodded. "Size?"
Dawn shrugged. "Um.... more than 40 pounds?" She looked over at Spike. "I hadn't really thought about it, but I'm not too much of a small-dog person, so..."
He nodded. "Sounds about right. Besides, this are just guidelines, pet. You don't necessarily have to stick to them."
Buffy signed the form, and gave it back to the woman at the desk, who smiled up at her. "Ready to go look at our residents, then?" She asked, to which Dawn nodded so enthusiastically that her hair flew over her shoulder and hit Buffy's check. The Slayer gave her younger sister an amused look, and they all followed the woman as she grabbed a leash and started out to the dog room.
Los Angeles was a large place, and the shelter was large, too. Dawn noted the number 70 on the kennel at the end of the place they started, and each kennel housed between one and three adult dogs, or several puppies. "Wow," she said softly.
Buffy glanced over her shoulder at her sister. "We don't have any time constraints today," she reminded her, "so take your time." Dawn nodded.
The woman showed them to each of the kennels that fit their description, of which there were quite a lot. Dawn instantly fell in love with several litters of puppies, but she knew they would be easily adopted, and if she found one she liked, she really wanted to get an adult dog.
At the very end of the row, the woman briefly pointed out a kennel housing two medium-size, heavily built dogs that were wagging their tails frantically and bouncing on the wire. "Wait," Dawn requested. "Them?" She pointed at the masses of shivering canine flesh, and the woman returned to the kennel.
She looked at the chart on the cage, and turned back to the Summers' and Spike. "The chart says these two go together. Apparently they were adopted out separately a month ago, and returned last week because they both caused severe damage to the houses. Their previous owner said they were angels together, though, so they go out that way."
Dawn turned her pleading eyes on her sister, and Buffy sighed, then threw up her hands. "Fine. Yes, you may look at them."
Dawn grinned so hard Buffy wondered if her face would split, and hugged her quickly. "So, we can take them out and play with them?" She asked the attendant who was helping them, and the woman nodded.
"Do you want to read this first?" She asked, handing the chart to Dawn, who nodded back.
According to the papers, 'Donna' and 'Dan' were brother and sister purebred pitbulls, ten months old. Donna weighed 55 pounds and her brother 70, and the reddish-tan color they were was called 'fawn'. Dawn skimmed the rest of the papers, not paying too much attention, and then put it back on the cage door. Meanwhile, the attendant had entered the kennel and was getting both dogs on leashes before she opened it again.
When she opened the door, both dogs leapt on Dawn, who laughed, pushed them gently down, and greeted them equally enthusiastically. The attendant handed both leashes to Dawn, and led them all back towards the lobby, where there were four 'get-acquainted' rooms in which people could meet and play with the dogs or cats without leashes.
An hour later, Buffy had just signed the paperwork and was now signing the check so that they could take the puppy siblings home with them. The attendant explained that both dogs were already fixed, so there was no need to worry about that, and as part of the adoption packet, they'd had their shots and gotten licenses. She suggested that they take them to the vet as quickly as possible, just in case there was something the shelter missed, but she was pretty sure they would make great pets.
Dawn was grinning from ear to ear as she led her new 'babies' from the shelter on their bright pink and black collars and leashes, respectively. Spike piled into the footwell of the front seat and covered himself with the blanket so that Dawn could sit in the somewhat cramped backseat with the newest members of the family.
"What are you going to call them?" Buffy asked as she drove them home, something the dogs thought was exceedingly fun.
Dawn looked over at her sister. "I don't know. They can't keep their names, though, cause they sound too much like mine."
Just then, the female came over, plunked both paws in Dawn's lap and lay down across the seat, taking a slurp at the underside of the teenager's chin before the settled. Dawn laughed and petted her, her brother still too intrigued by the view to want attention.
"You kind of look like a Cassidy," She told the dog, and Buffy smiled.
"Is that what you're going to call her?"
Dawn nodded. "I think I am. And even though I don't really like the names, I think having the same first letter was cute. So maybe her brother should be Cody?"
"I like it."
Dawn grinned, and they rode the rest of the way home without conversation, though there was hardly silence, since the teenager talked to her new dogs the entire way.
Buffy laughed, nearly giggling, as Angel sat bolt-upright in his bed and looked around, only to find two rowdy, adolescent dogs mauling him in affection rather than the demon he'd obviously expected. Dawn stood on the left side of his bed, Buffy right behind her, and both seemed to find it incredibly funny that the vampire had reacted to the dogs as though they were a genuine threat, when in fact, all they wanted was to lick him.
It had been Dawn's idea to let the dogs wake him, and so far, she was loving the results.
"Angel," She said, when he seemed focused enough to deal with conversation, "meet my new babies." She grinned, and pointed to the dog with the neon pink collar first, then the dog with the black collar. "Meet Cassidy, and Cody."
Angel reluctantly raised one hand to pet the nearest dog, Cassidy. "Hello," He greeted them, as if they were people, and Dawn smiled, glad that she wasn't the only one who thought the dogs would be more family than pets.
"Buffy?"
"Yeah?"
"How did we end up with two of them?"
The dry humor in his voice couldn't be missed, and the Slayer laughed, hauling Cody off the bed and shooing him out the door to follow his sister and Dawn. "They were a package. Adopt one, you get 'em both."
"And why did we do that?"
Buffy shrugged. "Dawn fell in love at first sight, and how can two dogs possibly make more trouble than one?"
Angel rolled his eyes. "I can think of lots of ways."
"Yeah, well... They're really cute!"
The vampire smiled slowly, letting it spread across his face leisurely. "So that's it, huh?"
"What's it?"
"The 'cute-dog, must-have' syndrome."
Buffy ducked her head a little. "Yeah, guess so." She raised her eyes back to his and grinned. "But aren't they?"
"Cute?"
"Yeah."
Angel gave her a real smile. "Yes, Buffy, they certainly are. And Dawn seems so happy."
"I know. I hope they live up to the expectations."
"I'm sure they will. They're young, and there's always trainers, if they're needed."
"Yeah, I guess so."
The door nudged into the back of Buffy's foot, and she looked around to find the larger of the two dogs trying to get his head through the small crack. She laughed, reached down to rub his ear, and nodded to Angel.
"I'm gonna go bond with our newest family members," she told him. "You coming?"
"In a minute. I just woke up, I gotta get dressed first."
"Okay. See you in a few."
With that, Buffy pushed the dog firmly from the doorframe and followed him out into the living room where Dawn was playing tug-of-war with a rope bone and the seemingly-more playful sibling.
"Cassidy!"
Buffy laughed as her sister landed on her butt on the floor from one of the dog's particularly strong tugs. "It's a good look on you," She told her sister jokingly.
Dawn glared. "Gee, thanks."
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