Chapter 4
Later that night at Buffy's house, Dawn comes running upstairs to Willow and Tara's room. She starts knocking on the door with increasing rapidity. Finally a groggy Willow comes to the door and opens it, followed by a concerned Tara.
"Dawnie, what is it?"
"Buffy."
That one word was enough of a wake-up call for the two witches. Willow immediately goes into serious/research mode.
"What happened? What's wrong? Where is she?"
"That's what I'm trying to tell you. She's not here. She should have been home from patrol hours ago, but she's not in her room. She's not anywhere."
Tears threaten to fall from Dawn's eyes as she tries desperately to hold it together long enough for the two witches to help her out.
"Okay. Try to calm down Dawnie. We'll call Giles and see if she ran into any problems. Maybe she's just running late." Tara soothed.
"NO! I will NOT calm down." Dawn yelled, surprising both girls. "I just got her back. I don't want to lose her again."
She starts to cry and immediately Tara puts a comforting arm around her.
"I'm sorry Dawnie. We all want to make sure she's okay. Why don't we go downstairs and make some hot chocolate while Willow calls Giles. Does that sound like a plan?"
"Uh huh." Dawn sniffles as Tara leads her down the stairs, shortly followed by Willow.