She appeared out of no where, but eleven year old Maggie Rosenberg didn't even blink. Well used to such entrances, the girl just laughed. "Aunt Dawn! You're back for a while!"
"Just for a quick conference with your Aunt Willow. She's contemplating going to England to hash it out with the Council. If she does, that means you and prat will be spending the summer on the road with me, brat." Spike had long ago christened Maggie as being the lil'est bit, but everyone else called her brat, while her twin was prat.
"Can Uncle Spike come too? I wanna see what he makes of the bints you fight against." Spike had always been there for his 'aunt' and 'uncle' although they tended to swap their relationship around. After all, it was just disconcerting to realize that you're the nephew of children that are over a century younger than you.
"Morganna Meagan Somers Calderash Summers Rosenberg watch your language, young lady!" As Dawn's reprimand echoed through the house, Liam ran in.
"Ooo, someone's in trouble!" Seeing his aunt next to his twin, he added, "Hey, Aunt Dawnie."
"Hello, Liam. Have you seen the Peroxide Vamp?"
"Uncle Spike's in the kitchen. He cooks real food better than you or Aunt Willow." Maggie was just as blunt as her mother had been when she wasn't pretending to be an American teenager. Bekka had been known for how untactful her comments were…and the fact that she couldn't have cared less that Elders were to be respected. As Buffy, however, she had been thoughtless and the epitome of bitchiness. Kieran had undergone a similar transition when she had become Dawn Summers. To say that Dawn was still Kieran wasn't true even though she still retained some of the things that had been a part—a vital part—of Kieran.
Her Aunt Janna had explained to her that when one of the Roma left the tribe, the tribe mourned for that person, even though they were still alive. They mourned, she explained, because after someone has to pretend to be someone else to survive, they actually become that person.
She hadn't understood at the tender age of nine, but after her family left the tribe the following year, she started to understand. By the time Janna had decided that it was time to visit her family on the Hellmouth, her nieces were no longer the girls they had been. Bekka still retained most of her Roma ways but no longer practiced magic. When she'd come back from Hell, they'd quickly rectified that.
And Kieran…Kieran was completely Dawn Summers. Yes, she was still a sorceress and a witch, but she was also an American girl. As the years passed, Janna had given up on returning her niece to the fold, allowing her to be her own person.
"That's nice," Dawn told her niece. "I'm going to stake him this time around."
The duet of "Aunt Dawn, you wouldn't!" brought both Spike and Willow into the living room. The vampire had been given a soul the same year the twins were born, which meant that he'd been on the side of Light—officially anyways, longer unofficially—for eleven years now.
"Hey, Slayer. Tired of being a diva and home for good?" Spike drawled.
"I bring home money," she bit back. "That's more than you can say."
"Now can we please not go into this with small ears around?" Willow asked, stepping between her wife and her 'live-in housekeeper/nanny'.
"Relax, Wills." After breaking the kiss that immediately followed her words, Dawn smirked. "Spike and I were goin' through the old rituals. Be glad I didn't threaten him with Pointe."
"I would've turned it on you," her best friend replied.
"I'm stronger. A Roma slayer is much more powerful than a souled vamp."
The twins had been trying to keep from snickering during the exchange but now they lost it. After the adults remembered the preteens and sent them back to bed, Willow sighed. "Travers is making more trouble than ever before. Giles has requested that I remind the former head of the Council that the Council is no longer under the control of a psychopath. Dawn, have you asked your bosses if you can bring the twins along with you?"
"I have," the wrestler nodded, "and because Edge and I are transferring to RAW when we meet up with the other company here in Chicago next week, Steph suggested that they join us. After all, they're home schooled anyways. And the Heartbreak Kid has a son, Cameron, who's their age, so they won't get lonely."
"But I teach them right now," Spike pointed out. "Who would teach them if they started to travel with you?"
"You will," Dawn said with a smirk. "Another witch'll be running the shoppe and living here at the house, so you won't have to house sit. And Cameron needs a teacher too. Apparently HBK can't teach worth a damn."
"Steph already agreed to this didn't she?" Spike sighed, knowing the battle was lost. "I swear, Willow, your cousin is one hard assed bint."
"Stephanie's already aware of that," Willow snickered.
As Dawn got ready to leave, she turned back to her family for a moment. "Spike, as strange as this sounds, you're probably my best friend. Do yourself a favor and try not to cuss around the kids. They already swear more than half the wrestlers I know." And with that, Dawn Summers left the city of Chicago and appeared back in the deserted locker rooms.