Chapter 3
Spike dusted the three remaining vamps in short order. He crouched down where Dawn lay bleeding on the grass. He brushed a long bloody strand of hair off her face.
"Niblet, you okay?" He bit off a curse, stupid Git does she look okay? He thought.
Dawn coughed weakly and winced at the pain. "Did you get them?" She asked looking up at him through the one good eye that wasn't swollen.
"Yeah, I did. Nothin left but dust." He promised. "Come on, Bit we gotta get you to a hospital."
"No, I'm not going there." Dawn said with a surprisingly strong voice.
"Dawn, you're hurt bad. We gotta get you to a doctor." He said. His voice was serious and colored with concern.
"Spike, no I mean it." She said.
"Look at you, Bitty Buffy stubborn streak the size of the ocean. Alright then, I'll take you back to your house. I'll even stay and help you come up with something to tell Big Sis." Spike said.
"No, and if you tell Buffy anything I'll stake you myself." Dawn said.
"Dawnie, be reasonable. The gig is up, not your fault you did the best you could but she was gonna find out about it soon enough." Spike said.
"I mean it, Spike. If you take me back to my house you better hope I die, because if I don't, I'm going to kill you." She threatened. Spike was surprised by the steel in her voice. Bit reminded him more of Buffy every day. She was made from Buffy's blood and soul so he shouldn't have been surprised. The similarities were bound to come out sometime. Just like a Summers woman to have it happen when they're dying.
Spike grumbled and scooped Dawn up in his arms. "Bloody Summers women, a bloody curse for the things I've done. Bloody brilliant job Powers that Be or whatever the hell you call them, even the bleedin gypsies couldn't have come up with a better curse. Alright, I'll take you back to my bleedin crypt; it's not a bloody convalescent hospital though."
It was a short walk to his crypt, closer then her house really. He managed to get the door open and Dawn inside. Managing the trap door was harder. He had to sit her down on the floor. He slid the trap door aside and picked Dawn back up. He carried her across the room to the bed. Spike lay Dawn in the bed gently, even so she hissed with pain.
"Sorry, Niblet." Spike looked around the room. "Don't know how I'm going to help you here, don't even have a first aid kit."
"I need some clean clothes. Go by the house and grab some of my things. There's a great big first aid kit in the bathroom, get it and make sure you get Rufus, the blue teddy bear on my bed." Dawn said.
"I still think a hospital would be a good idea."
"No, slayer like healing, remember? I'll be okay. I just need to sleep and get cleaned up." Dawn said.
Spike noticed she shivered in the cool crypt. He started a fire in the fireplace. The room was fairly small. It would heat up quickly. He turned and dusted his hands off.
"Alright, I'll be back in a little while then. Try not to bleed everywhere." He said.
"Yeah, I'll do that." Dawn said with a bit of a smile.
Spike shimmied up the tree to Dawn's open window. He paused at the sill, listening for signs of anyone awake. He sniffed the air a little. Buffy wasn't there. He stepped inside the window and looked around Dawn's room. He grabbed the blue teddy bear and then went to her closet. There was a duffle bag on the floor of the closet. He took it over to the dresser and slid open the drawers one by one, tossing handfuls of clothes in the duffel. He grabbed a handful of panties, trying not to look. Thongs, Niblet wears thongs? He thought shoving a handful of them deep into the duffel bag. He'd always pictured her more of a white cotton panties girl. He grabbed a few things from the closet, dropping half of them on the floor. Spike cursed and bent to pick up the various jackets and sweaters on the closet floor. He tossed them in the duffel bag too.
Spike found the first aid kit right where Dawn had said it would be. It was the kind of thing only someone used to serious wounds on a regular basis would have. He tucked it under his arm, swung the duffel bag over his shoulder and stuffed Rufus into the pocket of his duster. He jumped from the roof and took off at a run back to the crypt. He really wished Dawn would let him take her to the hospital. If she was unconscious when he got back she was going. She could stake him later if she wanted to.
He pushed open the door to the crypt and dropped down the trap door. Dawn was propped up on pillows. She smiled weakly at him. She was starkly pale which made the blood stand out bright red on her skin.
"Sorry, tried not to bleed, body didn't cooperate." She said.
"S'okay, Niblet. I've got the first aid kit. I'm going to get some water and get you cleaned up." He dug through the duffel bag and came up with a pair of pajamas that had suns and moons on them. "Change into those if you can. I'll be right back."
He disappeared into the bathroom. Dawn pulled her shirt off with a wince. She threw it on the floor. She hissed with pain as she tried to pull her jeans down. She thought about waiting and letting Spike help her, but she really didn't want him to see her half naked, at least not like this. She gritted her teeth and slid the jeans down her slim hips. She tossed them on the floor next to her shirt and fell back panting. She just didn't have the energy to put on the pajama pants. She pulled the blankets over her legs and decided that would suffice for the moment.
Spike came out of the bathroom with a ceramic bowl of water and some wash clothes. He sat down on the edge of the bed, sitting the bowl on the nightstand. He soaked a wash cloth in the water and squeezed it out.
"This might hurt a bit, can't be helped." He said as he dabbed at her face. "Really should have stitches on this cut above your eye." Once he'd cleaned the cut he put some antibiotic cream on it and covered it with a bandage.
"No, it'll be fine." Dawn said coughing weakly. She winced when she did.
"Alright, but you'll have a scar." Spike warned.
"That's okay. It'll look like yours." She said.
"Mine?" Spike asked. His scarred eyebrow shot up in question.
"The one on your eyebrow." She said. Her words were slurred coming through swollen, cut lips.
He reached up and felt his eyebrows, searching for the scar. He nodded. "Forgot it was there. Never seen it you know."
"I didn't know vampires scarred." She said.
"Only if the scar is made by a holy weapon or a cross." Spike said.
"So how'd you get it?" Dawn asked. It hurt to talk but it kept her mind off the pain.
"Clever little slayer in the eighteenth century. She had a spiked mace she'd had blessed by the bleedin pope or something. Caught me in the head with it." Spike said.
"Did you kill her?" Dawn asked.
"Not then. Your hair's a mess, all kinds of blood in it. When you feel a bit better we'll wash it out." Spike said.
"Kay. You did kill her though?" Dawn persisted.
Spike washed the blood off the back of her neck and gently dabbed at the wound on her scalp. It was shallow and wouldn't have needed stitches even if he could have gotten her to go to the hospital. He sprayed it with Bactine. Her hair soaked up most of it but it made him feel better to spray the disinfectant on her scalp. "Yeah, caught up with her in China during the Boxer Rebellion. Now that was a fun time, enough Chinese food to go 'round. You cut up anywhere else?" Spike said.
Dawn shook her head. "Hurts to breathe though."
Spike nodded. "Broke some ribs I'll wager. Nothin to do for them. Here take some aspirin." He handed her a couple of aspirin and a bottle of water. She swallowed them and snuggled back into the pillows.
"Stay with me?" She asked.
"It's my bleedin crypt where do you think I'm goin?" Spike said.
She shrugged and even that hurt.
"You just get some sleep. I'm going to take the couch." He said.
She watched as Spike unfolded a blanket and lay down on the couch. He folded his arms behind his head. "Spike," she said.
"Yeah?" He sat up slightly, looking over the back of the couch at her.
"What's it feel like to be bit by a vampire?" She asked.
"Niblet, we'll talk about this when you're feeling better." Spike said.
"No, I wanna know." Dawn persisted. It didn't hold a lot of weight when the question came with a huge yawn.
"Why?"
"Almost got bit tonight, almost let him bite me." Dawn said, her voice growing sleepy.
"I'll tell you later, Bit. I'm glad you didn't let him bite you." Spike said.
"Me too." Dawn said with a yawn and a hiss of pain.
*
Buffy yelled up the stairs for the fourth time. "Dawn, come on your going to be late again!" She sighed when there was no answer and trudged up the stairs. She hadn't been this difficult as a teenager, had she? Buffy wondered. She threw the door to Dawn's room open.
"Dawn," Buffy said stepping inside. Her mouth fell open. There were clothes strung all about. Buffy jerked open a drawer, it was mostly empty. She jerked open another and another. They were all more empty then full. There were clothes missing out of the closet too. She looked at the bed. Rufus was missing. Buffy ran back down the stairs and grabbed the phone. She called Xander first.
"Xander, have you seen Dawn?" Buffy asked even as the man was saying hello.
"No, why what's up?" Xander said.
"She's run away." Buffy said. Her voice sounded empty and hollow. She should have seen this coming with the fights and the shop lifting. "Oh God, I threatened to send her to live with Dad yesterday, Xander. I didn't mean it. I thought she knew that. "
"Its okay, Buff. We'll find her. I'm on my way over there." Xander said.
Buffy nodded mutely and hung up the phone. This was her fault. She'd been too hard on Dawn or maybe she'd been too permissive. How did one decide what the right balance was? Oh, God had this been what her Mom had felt like all those years ago when she'd run away after sending Angel to Hell? They had to find her. They would find her. She couldn't just lose her little sister. Mom had left her responsible. She couldn't just go and lose her. Buffy struggled against tears. This was not the time to break down.
True to his word, Xander was at the house in a matter of minutes. He took a look at Dawn's room. "Are you sure she wasn't kidnapped by something looking to trade for a slayer? Now doesn't that sound hopeful, I mean maybe someone decided to take her on vacation and forgot to tell you?" Xander said.
Buffy shook her head. "She took Rufus. A random kidnapper is not going to let her take stuffed animals, or clothes. She's run away."
"Who is Rufus?" Xander asked.
"A little blue bear Mom got her years ago when she had her tonsils taken out." Buffy said.
"Okay, so we hit all the Dawn haunts, call her friends. Would she have gone to LA?" Xander asked.
"I don't think so. She'd want to get as far away from Dad as possible and he travels all over but his home base is still LA." Buffy said.
"Okay, then lets go to the bus station first, see if anyone remembers someone that looks like Dawn buying a ticket to anywhere." Xander said.
Buffy nodded, grateful to hand over control to Xander in this situation. When she found Dawn she was grounded for the rest of her natural life, or at least the rest of Buffy's.
Spike dusted the three remaining vamps in short order. He crouched down where Dawn lay bleeding on the grass. He brushed a long bloody strand of hair off her face.
"Niblet, you okay?" He bit off a curse, stupid Git does she look okay? He thought.
Dawn coughed weakly and winced at the pain. "Did you get them?" She asked looking up at him through the one good eye that wasn't swollen.
"Yeah, I did. Nothin left but dust." He promised. "Come on, Bit we gotta get you to a hospital."
"No, I'm not going there." Dawn said with a surprisingly strong voice.
"Dawn, you're hurt bad. We gotta get you to a doctor." He said. His voice was serious and colored with concern.
"Spike, no I mean it." She said.
"Look at you, Bitty Buffy stubborn streak the size of the ocean. Alright then, I'll take you back to your house. I'll even stay and help you come up with something to tell Big Sis." Spike said.
"No, and if you tell Buffy anything I'll stake you myself." Dawn said.
"Dawnie, be reasonable. The gig is up, not your fault you did the best you could but she was gonna find out about it soon enough." Spike said.
"I mean it, Spike. If you take me back to my house you better hope I die, because if I don't, I'm going to kill you." She threatened. Spike was surprised by the steel in her voice. Bit reminded him more of Buffy every day. She was made from Buffy's blood and soul so he shouldn't have been surprised. The similarities were bound to come out sometime. Just like a Summers woman to have it happen when they're dying.
Spike grumbled and scooped Dawn up in his arms. "Bloody Summers women, a bloody curse for the things I've done. Bloody brilliant job Powers that Be or whatever the hell you call them, even the bleedin gypsies couldn't have come up with a better curse. Alright, I'll take you back to my bleedin crypt; it's not a bloody convalescent hospital though."
It was a short walk to his crypt, closer then her house really. He managed to get the door open and Dawn inside. Managing the trap door was harder. He had to sit her down on the floor. He slid the trap door aside and picked Dawn back up. He carried her across the room to the bed. Spike lay Dawn in the bed gently, even so she hissed with pain.
"Sorry, Niblet." Spike looked around the room. "Don't know how I'm going to help you here, don't even have a first aid kit."
"I need some clean clothes. Go by the house and grab some of my things. There's a great big first aid kit in the bathroom, get it and make sure you get Rufus, the blue teddy bear on my bed." Dawn said.
"I still think a hospital would be a good idea."
"No, slayer like healing, remember? I'll be okay. I just need to sleep and get cleaned up." Dawn said.
Spike noticed she shivered in the cool crypt. He started a fire in the fireplace. The room was fairly small. It would heat up quickly. He turned and dusted his hands off.
"Alright, I'll be back in a little while then. Try not to bleed everywhere." He said.
"Yeah, I'll do that." Dawn said with a bit of a smile.
Spike shimmied up the tree to Dawn's open window. He paused at the sill, listening for signs of anyone awake. He sniffed the air a little. Buffy wasn't there. He stepped inside the window and looked around Dawn's room. He grabbed the blue teddy bear and then went to her closet. There was a duffle bag on the floor of the closet. He took it over to the dresser and slid open the drawers one by one, tossing handfuls of clothes in the duffel. He grabbed a handful of panties, trying not to look. Thongs, Niblet wears thongs? He thought shoving a handful of them deep into the duffel bag. He'd always pictured her more of a white cotton panties girl. He grabbed a few things from the closet, dropping half of them on the floor. Spike cursed and bent to pick up the various jackets and sweaters on the closet floor. He tossed them in the duffel bag too.
Spike found the first aid kit right where Dawn had said it would be. It was the kind of thing only someone used to serious wounds on a regular basis would have. He tucked it under his arm, swung the duffel bag over his shoulder and stuffed Rufus into the pocket of his duster. He jumped from the roof and took off at a run back to the crypt. He really wished Dawn would let him take her to the hospital. If she was unconscious when he got back she was going. She could stake him later if she wanted to.
He pushed open the door to the crypt and dropped down the trap door. Dawn was propped up on pillows. She smiled weakly at him. She was starkly pale which made the blood stand out bright red on her skin.
"Sorry, tried not to bleed, body didn't cooperate." She said.
"S'okay, Niblet. I've got the first aid kit. I'm going to get some water and get you cleaned up." He dug through the duffel bag and came up with a pair of pajamas that had suns and moons on them. "Change into those if you can. I'll be right back."
He disappeared into the bathroom. Dawn pulled her shirt off with a wince. She threw it on the floor. She hissed with pain as she tried to pull her jeans down. She thought about waiting and letting Spike help her, but she really didn't want him to see her half naked, at least not like this. She gritted her teeth and slid the jeans down her slim hips. She tossed them on the floor next to her shirt and fell back panting. She just didn't have the energy to put on the pajama pants. She pulled the blankets over her legs and decided that would suffice for the moment.
Spike came out of the bathroom with a ceramic bowl of water and some wash clothes. He sat down on the edge of the bed, sitting the bowl on the nightstand. He soaked a wash cloth in the water and squeezed it out.
"This might hurt a bit, can't be helped." He said as he dabbed at her face. "Really should have stitches on this cut above your eye." Once he'd cleaned the cut he put some antibiotic cream on it and covered it with a bandage.
"No, it'll be fine." Dawn said coughing weakly. She winced when she did.
"Alright, but you'll have a scar." Spike warned.
"That's okay. It'll look like yours." She said.
"Mine?" Spike asked. His scarred eyebrow shot up in question.
"The one on your eyebrow." She said. Her words were slurred coming through swollen, cut lips.
He reached up and felt his eyebrows, searching for the scar. He nodded. "Forgot it was there. Never seen it you know."
"I didn't know vampires scarred." She said.
"Only if the scar is made by a holy weapon or a cross." Spike said.
"So how'd you get it?" Dawn asked. It hurt to talk but it kept her mind off the pain.
"Clever little slayer in the eighteenth century. She had a spiked mace she'd had blessed by the bleedin pope or something. Caught me in the head with it." Spike said.
"Did you kill her?" Dawn asked.
"Not then. Your hair's a mess, all kinds of blood in it. When you feel a bit better we'll wash it out." Spike said.
"Kay. You did kill her though?" Dawn persisted.
Spike washed the blood off the back of her neck and gently dabbed at the wound on her scalp. It was shallow and wouldn't have needed stitches even if he could have gotten her to go to the hospital. He sprayed it with Bactine. Her hair soaked up most of it but it made him feel better to spray the disinfectant on her scalp. "Yeah, caught up with her in China during the Boxer Rebellion. Now that was a fun time, enough Chinese food to go 'round. You cut up anywhere else?" Spike said.
Dawn shook her head. "Hurts to breathe though."
Spike nodded. "Broke some ribs I'll wager. Nothin to do for them. Here take some aspirin." He handed her a couple of aspirin and a bottle of water. She swallowed them and snuggled back into the pillows.
"Stay with me?" She asked.
"It's my bleedin crypt where do you think I'm goin?" Spike said.
She shrugged and even that hurt.
"You just get some sleep. I'm going to take the couch." He said.
She watched as Spike unfolded a blanket and lay down on the couch. He folded his arms behind his head. "Spike," she said.
"Yeah?" He sat up slightly, looking over the back of the couch at her.
"What's it feel like to be bit by a vampire?" She asked.
"Niblet, we'll talk about this when you're feeling better." Spike said.
"No, I wanna know." Dawn persisted. It didn't hold a lot of weight when the question came with a huge yawn.
"Why?"
"Almost got bit tonight, almost let him bite me." Dawn said, her voice growing sleepy.
"I'll tell you later, Bit. I'm glad you didn't let him bite you." Spike said.
"Me too." Dawn said with a yawn and a hiss of pain.
*
Buffy yelled up the stairs for the fourth time. "Dawn, come on your going to be late again!" She sighed when there was no answer and trudged up the stairs. She hadn't been this difficult as a teenager, had she? Buffy wondered. She threw the door to Dawn's room open.
"Dawn," Buffy said stepping inside. Her mouth fell open. There were clothes strung all about. Buffy jerked open a drawer, it was mostly empty. She jerked open another and another. They were all more empty then full. There were clothes missing out of the closet too. She looked at the bed. Rufus was missing. Buffy ran back down the stairs and grabbed the phone. She called Xander first.
"Xander, have you seen Dawn?" Buffy asked even as the man was saying hello.
"No, why what's up?" Xander said.
"She's run away." Buffy said. Her voice sounded empty and hollow. She should have seen this coming with the fights and the shop lifting. "Oh God, I threatened to send her to live with Dad yesterday, Xander. I didn't mean it. I thought she knew that. "
"Its okay, Buff. We'll find her. I'm on my way over there." Xander said.
Buffy nodded mutely and hung up the phone. This was her fault. She'd been too hard on Dawn or maybe she'd been too permissive. How did one decide what the right balance was? Oh, God had this been what her Mom had felt like all those years ago when she'd run away after sending Angel to Hell? They had to find her. They would find her. She couldn't just lose her little sister. Mom had left her responsible. She couldn't just go and lose her. Buffy struggled against tears. This was not the time to break down.
True to his word, Xander was at the house in a matter of minutes. He took a look at Dawn's room. "Are you sure she wasn't kidnapped by something looking to trade for a slayer? Now doesn't that sound hopeful, I mean maybe someone decided to take her on vacation and forgot to tell you?" Xander said.
Buffy shook her head. "She took Rufus. A random kidnapper is not going to let her take stuffed animals, or clothes. She's run away."
"Who is Rufus?" Xander asked.
"A little blue bear Mom got her years ago when she had her tonsils taken out." Buffy said.
"Okay, so we hit all the Dawn haunts, call her friends. Would she have gone to LA?" Xander asked.
"I don't think so. She'd want to get as far away from Dad as possible and he travels all over but his home base is still LA." Buffy said.
"Okay, then lets go to the bus station first, see if anyone remembers someone that looks like Dawn buying a ticket to anywhere." Xander said.
Buffy nodded, grateful to hand over control to Xander in this situation. When she found Dawn she was grounded for the rest of her natural life, or at least the rest of Buffy's.