Disclaimer: See the previous chapters, but basically I don't own anyone or anything.

Chapter 12

Dawn was lying in her bed, she was supposed to be sleeping because she had school tomorrow morning but she couldn't fall asleep. She had heard her sister sneaking out of her window every night for the past week, not to mention she had heard her sister talking to her stupid boyfriend Angel in her bedroom. She knew her mom would totally freak out if she found out Buffy was sneaking out of the house again or if she knew that Angel was in Buffy's bedroom. That was why Dawn was lying in her bed fully clothed waiting to hear Buffy's window opening. She wasn't really looking to get Buffy into trouble but she wanted to know what Buffy did at night not to mention Buffy sneaking out of the house was never of the good. The last time Buffy started sneaking out she was getting into fights and then she burnt down the school gym and then got expelled. It seemed like every single time she came home after sneaking out she had a different cut or bruise. Dawn personally believed that Buffy was in some type of gang, and tonight she decided to find out the truth about what Buffy did every single night that she couldn't tell her mom or family about.

Dawn had begun to drift off when she heard the window in Buffy's bedroom slide open. Dawn jumped out of her bed and went to the window staying in the shadows so Buffy wouldn't see her. She caught sight of her older sister climbing across the porch's roof and then shimmying down the tree outside of her window. Dawn waited until she saw Buffy hit the ground before climbing out of her own window and down to the ground. As soon as she reached the ground she ran to the sidewalk seeing that Buffy was maybe 4 or 5 feet in front of her, and started following her. Dawn was trying her hardest to be stealthy, praying her sister wouldn't notice that someone was following her. She had absolutely no idea where Buffy was going, but she did notice that her sister had something clutched in her hand and was pretty sure it was a weapon.

Suddenly Dawn felt someone roughly grab her from behind, she half expected it to be either Willow or Xander since they never seemed to be to far away from Buffy, so she slowly turned her head around to see who had attacked her. Whatever it was that had attacked her it wasn't human, its brow was wrinkly and overhanging, its eyes glowing yellow and its teeth were sharp and pointed. Dawn felt fear grip her body and she didn't know what else to do but scream. She screamed as loud as she could and began to wriggle and kick hoping the thing would release its grip on her. Instead it pushed her to the ground and got on top of her, pinning her arms and legs to the sidewalk.

Buffy heard a loud shriek pierce the air around her and she spun around quickly, her heart beginning to beat faster as adrenaline began to rush through her body preparing for a fight. She saw a girl who couldn't be much older than Dawn being pinned down by a large male vampire.

"Hey!" Buffy shouted at it, "Why don't you go pick on someone my own size." Dawn saw the thing turn to face Buffy and get up off of her.

"Slayer," He growled, " You dare to interrupt my dinner."

"Well yeah duh." Buffy quipped and Dawn watched in horror as the thing rushed at her sister, but Buffy quickly deflected him by sidestepping him as he ran and grabbing him by his collar flinging him into a tree about 3 or 4 feet in front of her. Dawn watched in awe as her tiny older sister easily blocked the thing's punches and as she executed perfect kicks and punches. Dawn heard a nagging voice in the back of her mind telling her to get up and run home before Buffy caught her, but her legs felt leaden like she was glued to the ground watching her sister fight this thing, silently praying that Buffy wouldn't get hurt, because even though they fought a lot Dawn loved her older sister. In the end Buffy managed to get the vampire on the ground, ramming her stake into his chest and stepping back satisfied as he turned into a pile of dust. She rubbed her nose a little as the dust was picked up in the wind and blew in her face and turned around to see if the girl she had saved was gone. She was surprised when she saw the girl sitting on the ground and Buffy began to go over to her.

"Hey, you want me to walk you....DAWN!! What the hell are you doing?!" Buffy shouted at her younger sister, Dawn cringed when she heard the angry tone in her older sister's voice, and then yelped in pain and surprise when Buffy grabbed her arm tightly, roughly yanking her to her feet.

"Oww Buffy, let go of me!" Dawn whined, wiggling and trying to pull her arm out of her sister's grasp but Buffy just gripped tighter, setting her hazel eyes on Dawn's blue ones, anger flickering deep within them and Dawn gulped nervously.

"You want to tell me what you think you are doing walking around alone at night?" Buffy asked. Great, Dawn thought, here comes the lecture its bad enough I get them from mom, but then Buffy has to decide to be all high and mighty and lecture me too.

" I'm not telling you anything until you let go of me." Dawn grumbled trying to buy time to come up with an excuse, as Buffy sighed letting go of Dawn's arm, "Thanks, now what was that thing? Why did he turn into dust?"

"No way are you getting out of this Dawn, I want to hear what you were doing now." Buffy demanded crossing her arms over her chest and Dawn did the same both girls glaring at each other.

"Fine, I'll tell you and then I'll just go tell mom how you are sneaking out again. Also, I'll tell her that you had Angel in your room the other night and how you turned a guy into dust." Dawn said smirking at her older sister knowingly.

"You were spying on me you little freak!" Buffy exclaimed.

"No, I wasn't, I could hear you two talking through the wall and I'm pretty sure I heard some moaning." Dawn said trying not to laugh when she saw how red her older sister's face turned at the thought of what Dawn just said. Buffy sighed defeated.

"Fine, what do you wanna know?" Buffy asked.

"Everything. What that thing was? Why he turned to dust? How you made him turn to dust and what you are? I mean are you even human or like some kind of mutant like on X-men?" Dawn asked, and Buffy rolled her eyes at Dawn's last comment.

"Of course I'm human..." Buffy began but Dawn interrupted.

"But you're like super-human right, like Superwoman or Spiderman, because no human could throw a guy that big into a tree four feet away. So did you like get bit by a radioactive spider? Or wait your adopted and you're really from another planet like Superman."

"Dawn shut up and listen or I'm not gonna tell you anything. And no to the spider bite thing and the adoption thing, those are cartoon characters Dawn. The thing that attacked you was a vampire." Buffy stated twisting a lock of hair around her fingers nervously trying to find the words to explain to Dawn about herself.

"Whoa vampires are real?" Dawn asked.

"Yep, and I'm the one girl in all the world chosen to fight them, well actually I'm one of the two girls chosen to fight them, I'm the Slayer, Dawnie, the Vampire Slayer." Buffy rushed out and Dawn just stared at her eyes widened in shock.

"So your job is like to kill vampires?" Dawn asked, and Buffy nodded, "Wow that is so cool, I can't wait to tell the kids at school that my big sister is like a superhero."

"Dawn, its not cool, its dangerous and scary, and you can't tell anyone technically you shouldn't even know." Buffy said exasperated.

"Can I tell them about the vampires?" Dawn asked.

"No, they wouldn't believe you." Buffy said sadly, remembering the two weeks she spent in a mental health clinic in LA after she told her parents who she was, and they thought she was crazy.

"That's why you went to the hospital huh Buffy? You tried to tell mom and dad and they didn't believe you?" Dawn asked and Buffy nodded slowly, " I won't tell anyone Buffy, I swear not even mom or Xander or Willow or Faith."

"They already know Dawnie, Xander and Will know they help me out sometimes, and Faith she is the other slayer." Buffy said not really wanting to let Dawn in on anything more.

" Wow, both my sisters are superheroes. Does anyone else know?" Dawn asked.

"Yeah, Giles and Dominick but that's it." Buffy said.

"The librarian Giles and Dominick Faith's "uncle" how do they know?" Dawn asked, she knew Buffy was starting to get annoyed by her questions but she just wanted to know everything about her sisters' nighttime activities.

"Didn't you ever think it was a little weird that I was spending all that time in the library and how Faith even after she found out that we were her family decided to stay with Dominick?" Buffy asked and Dawn nodded, " Well that's cause Dominick and Giles are our watchers, which is just guys who watch over the slayers, they train us, help us out in battle and also research exactly what it is we are going to fight so we can fight it."

"So all these people help you out, Willow, Xander, Dominick, and Giles, well I wanna help to." Dawn told her sister.

"What? No, you aren't helping, I didn't even want you to know, its too dangerous for you Dawnie, I was chosen to do this you weren't you need to have a normal childhood." Buffy told her sister.

"Buffy you never let me do anything I'm not a baby anymore! You can't protect me forever!" Dawn shouted at her older sister, turning and running towards there house, Buffy began to chase after her but gave up as she too began to walk towards her home. Buffy didn't quite get why everyone wanted to help, it was so dangerous what her and Faith did but yet none of their friends ever left their sides and now Dawn wouldn't either, she would try to find a way to help but Buffy wouldn't let her. Her sister had only just turned eleven and to Buffy she was still a child she needed to do childish things, not fight vampires or other assorted forces of darkness. Buffy crawled into the window of her house, and changed into her pajamas and then crept down the hall into Dawn's bedroom.

"Dawn?" She whispered softly, but her only answer was the sound of deep breathing. Buffy walked over next to her sister's bed and saw that she was sleeping, lying on her back one hand thrown up on her pillow. Buffy smiled slightly at the sight of her younger sister's undisturbed sleep and reached out a hand brushing a few stray strands of hair off of Dawn's forehead. She didn't care what Dawn said or what she wanted Buffy would keep her away from all of the bad stuff in the world as long as she could, it was her job not only as the Slayer but as a big sister to protect Dawn from things that wanted to hurt her, just as it was her job to protect Willow and Xander. Dawn may hate her for it but it was what she had to do. She bent down placing a soft kiss on Dawn's forehead before tiptoeing out of the room and shutting the door softly behind her.