Dawn rolled over and eyed her sleeping friend for a second, then decided she was thirsty. She got up quietly and padded downstairs. As she walked by the couch when a hand reached out to grab her, causing her to squeak. She looked down to see Jon grinning devilishly at her.
"You scared me to death!" she complained quietly, but willingly sat when he pulled her down.
"Watcha doin'?" He tangled his fingers with hers, watching her closely.
"Getting some oj, I'm pretty thirsty." She reached out her hand and brushed his hair gently off of his forehead. She was amazed by this guy. Having a lifetime of someone else's memories and having the courage to go out and make his own must have been incredibly tough but here he was.
"Want company?" He asked, hoping that she'd say yes.
"Ok."
They walked companionably into the kitchen, almost hyper aware of each other. Dawn quietly moved around, getting glasses, then the oj and pouring them both some before putting the oj back in the fridge. They watched each other drink in silence.
"So, you're a carbon copy of this Jack guy that Buffy, Will and Jay know, with all of his memories."
Jon nodded, "Yeah, it's weird. I mean I have his memories, good and bad, that aren't mine, though the past three years are."
"I'm older than you." She said suddenly.
"I know, Cass said that you'd be turning 19 soon."
Shaking her head impatiently, wanting him, no needing him, to understand her she began to speak, "5 years ago I didn't exist. A group of monks took some of Buffy's blood and created me." His mouth opened in shock, "The why isn't important, just that I only recently came to be. They gave Buffy and me false memories of a non existent childhood but Buffy and Giles figured it out." Her eyes begged his to understand, not to see her as a freak, and he nodded slowly.
He set his juice glass down and moved over to gently grip her shoulders, "So, how do you feel about dating a younger man?"
Almost giddy with relief she cocked her head, her dark hair swinging to brush his hands, "I'm not at all opposed to it."
Jon smiled, "Good, because I'm going to kiss the daylights out of you." And pulling her close he proceeded to do as he had promised.
Giles had thought he'd heard a noise and was about to step into the kitchen when he stopped abruptly, watching the scene before him with some dismay. The ex-colonel was practically devouring Dawn, his hands definitely not where they were supposed to be.
"Mm Hmm." Giles cleared his throat making Dawn jump but Jon held her until he finished the kiss. His head came up and he smiled as Dawn's eyes fluttered open.
"Jon, perhaps you would let Dawn go back to bed while we have a chat." Giles said in an unnervingly quiet voice. Dawn's eyes widened and met Jon's questioningly.
"It's ok Dawn. I don't think that Mr. Giles is going to skewer me before we talk. Go on to bed, I'm going to educate you on the legends of Rock and Roll tomorrow."
Giles gestured sharply and Dawn took off upstairs. Jon followed the older man into the living room and sat on the couch while Giles paced.
Giles stopped pacing and pinned the younger man with a glare that would've done General Hammond proud. "I hope that you realize that even if your body is only 18, your experience as a Colonel would constitute taking advantage of Dawn."
Jon stood, "No! I really like her and I would never force her into something that she's not ready for!" he protested.
"It doesn't change the fact that you have a forty something year old mans' memories!" Giles snapped. "Were you married?"
Not expecting this line of attack Jon sat down abruptly. "Jack was married. He had a son Charlie." Jon sucked in a breath as the remembered grief washed over him, then he spoke, "Jack's 10 year old son found Jack's service revolver and shot himself in the head by accident. Jack's son died in Jack's arms, and his marriage died that day too." Jon ground out, trying to control his grief, trying to force himself to remember that it was Jack's grief, not his own.
"I'm sorry Jon." Giles said quietly.
Jon nodded jerkily, "That's who I am now. Jon O'Neill. I'm making my own life now and I really want Dawn to be a part of it. Yes, I fall back on the memories of the life I never had, but not to take advantage or hurt anyone. I'd like to think that I can avoid the same mistakes." His eyes met Giles squarely.
Sitting back on the couch Jon leaned his head back with a sigh, then looked over at Giles, "I won't lie to you. I'm falling for Dawn and falling hard, but I won't rush her."
Sighing Giles took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes, "I guess I just wasn't prepared to lose both of my girls quite so soon."
"Dawn and I haven't even graduated from High School yet. We're not going to rush into marriage or something."
"But you already love her." Was the low response.
Jon chuckled quietly, "Yeah, looks that way doesn't it." He looked at the man who was Dawn's father, "Look at it this way, you're not losing your daughters, you're gaining two smartass sons!"
"Good night Jon." Giles said with a wry shake of his head and he disappeared down the hallway to his room.
"Night Giles." He watched Giles door close, then looked towards the stairway, standing as he watched Dawn come back down and walk into his waiting arms.
The next day the group went to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Jon, and surprisingly Giles tried to get the girls to believe that U2 was the greatest band on the face of the Earth, while Buffy, Willow and Xander were attracted to the Eric Clapton exhibit. Jay was pretty much a fan of everything and stuck with Buffy, laughing at Faith as she dissed U2 to Giles shocked face.
After the museum the girls dragged the men to walk on Lake Erie's waterfront. There was a lot of grumbling from the men about the cold wind off of the icy lake so everyone piled into their cars and drove back to the house for hot chocolate.
The girls went to the Galleria Mall for the evening. Cassie wanted souvenirs and Willow was going to meet them there after some inventory of the store.
Jay, Xander, Giles and Jon decided to do a little woodpile catch up. Both Jay and Jon were splitting the logs while Giles and Xander stacked.
"You know.." Jon panted as he split another log, "You'd think Faith or Buffy," another swing, "would do this." The log fell into pieces.
Xander laughed as he picked up the split pieces, "Not bloody likely." He said, causing Giles lips to twitch at the memory of a certain blond vamp who used to say the same thing.
Giles looked over at the house next door, then looked at the men. "We have an elderly neighbor, let me see if she needs any firewood and what length she needs."
The men looked at each other and shrugged, "Sure." They cleaned up what they had already done and Jay leaned on his axe.
"So Xander, does having one eye make it harder doing stuff like this?" He asked curiously.
Nodding Xander finished stacking a bunch of split wood by the back door, "Sure. Can't split wood, my depth perception is way off, might take off my toes." He grinned. "I can drive, but it took practice, and I don't hit my thumb anymore when I drive nails, though we use pneumatic nailers now anyway so that's a moot point."
Jon rolled his shoulders, "So, and if I'm outta line just tell me, but what happened to your eye?"
Xander rested on an unsplit log, absently rolling up the sleeve of his red checked flannel shirt. "In California the 1st Evil gave power to this freakazoid who called himself a preacher. During a battle he cornered me and stuck his thumb in my eye."
The other men winced. "God Xander, I'm so sorry." Jay said.
Xander shook his head, "Of all of the people in the battle, including 20 Slayers, one witch, a vamp and myself? We lost 4 slayers, and I lost an eye. I consider myself lucky."
Giles walked back over and rested a comforting hand on Xander's shoulder, "Even though he has no super strength or special powers he's been fighting demons and vamps for about 10 years." The pride in Giles voice made Jay realize that Giles considered Xander as much of a son as he considered Buffy, Willow and Dawn as his daughters.
Jon eyed them thoughtfully, then asked, "More wood?"
"Mrs. Povacek would love some wood and she has a plate of freshly made, um, snickerdoodles waiting for us."
Jon whistled, "Now we're talkin', let's get busy. Can't waste homemade snickerdoodles. How long of pieces?" and the men got ready to chop some more wood.