Title: Warning Signs
Series: Leave it Behind
Author: Autumn
Email: autumnleaes@autumnpenguins.com
Rating: R
Cat: Drama
Archive: API, others please ask
Story Summary: The implications of Spike serving as the vessel come back to haunt the Scoobies.
Series Summary: An AU of season six. What if Buffy hadn't been the one who had died?
Author's Notes:
Current story order is: Equilibrium, The Lesser, Of Two Evils, Lost, You Can't Go Home Again, Warning Signs
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Dawn woke up to find herself lying on her bed. She'd collapsed onto the floor, and from Buffy and Giles hovering over her she'd assumed that they'd moved her. Her chest felt like someone had slammed a stake in her chest. "Geese Buffy, did you really need to impale me?" Dawn voiced, rubbing the sore area.
" I never touched you. What happened Dawn?"
"There was this jolt that just went through me and it really hurt, and next thing I know I met the floor."
"Where's Spike?" Dawn asked, adopting the same flat tone she'd used earlier.
"He collapsed at the same time you did. He's probably downstairs." Giles said.
"No doubt you just left him there." Dawn said angrily and began getting out of bed.
"I'll check on him, you just stay up here. Get some rest." Giles quickly left the room, feeling a slight pang of guilt at leaving Spike as they had.
Buffy sat on the bed with Dawn and stroked her hair. "Dawnie, I was so worried. I thought you were going away again when you fainted." Buffy confided, her voice choked with tears.
"Yeah." Was all Dawn answered before she turned her head away from her sister.
"We'll figure out what's wrong with you, I promise." Buffy went on earnestly, either not noticing or choosing to ignore Dawn's behavior.
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Giles called Willow, Tara, Anya and Xander to an emergency Scooby meeting. Giles had eventually persuaded Buffy to go along with them, and leave Dawn with Spike who had revived about the same time that Dawn had for the duration of the meeting. "Go Buffy. I'll just take a shower, try to get the smell of the grave out of my hair."
"I'll take care of Nibblet. Get outta the house, it'll be good for you." Spike said, picking up on Dawn's desire to be away from the others.
"Are you sure? I don't want you too feel like I'm abandoning you right when you get back. I want to be hear for you Dawn."
"Buffy, I'm fine. But go with Giles. I don't really want to see anybody else yet."
"Do you remember the phone number?" Giles asked.
"I remember a lot of things." Dawn said so softly that only Spike's vampiric hearing picked up on what she'd said.
Giles and Buffy dismissed themselves, after Buffy warned Spike about letting anything happen to Dawn. The vampire wanted to retort that clearly something already had, but held his tongue in his urge to be rid of the Watcher and Slayer. Casting a few last looks at Dawn, the two finally left the house, and rushed towards the Magic Box. After a few minutes of silence, the Scooby gang was assembled en mass, and Giles began pacing nervously. "There's something we need to tell you."
"You're getting married!" Anya called excitedly/
Giles shot her a furtive glance.
"Well, it's a normal preface for that sort of announcement." Anya continued sniffily.
"Dawn's back." Buffy blurted out.
"What? How? What?" Xander queried.
"Several members of the council returned o Sunnydale and helped to raise Dawn. The spell worked, and she's alive."
"Oh Buffy!" Willow hugged Buffy, understanding the reason for Buffy's return to normal behavior.
"I'm afraid things are more complicated than that. The spell we used involved-Spike. And when we were all at Buffy's house, Dawn and Spike were overtaken by what appears to be a side effect from the resurrection spell."
"Giles, what spell did you use?" Tara asked slowly, her voice etched with worry.
"Osirus' Vestelina" Giles answered softly.
Anya, Tara and Willow let out collective gasps. "For the rest of us who don't dabble in the dark arts, what exactly does that mean?"
"From what I've read about it, it's one of the darkest resurrection spells. It calls on using a person, usually a witch who is strong enough to funnel essence into a body." Willow explained to Xander and Buffy.
"It was incredibly reckless of you. You should have left Dawn in the ground." Tara bit out.
"Hey! This is my sister we're talking about."
"Buffy you don't understand. Resurrection spells aren't like anything else." Anya added.
"Do you know why they use witches, for that spell Giles?"
"Of course I do." Giles said angrily.
"Again, what are you people talking about? Dawn's back, how can that be bad?" Xander asked innocently.
"Because, that spell requires a soul transfer!" Tara yelled.
Buffy turned slowly to her watcher, the impact of Tara's words settling into her stomach unpleasantly. "Giles, does Dawn-does she have her soul?"
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"Bint you alright in there?" Spike called through the bathroom door.
"You can come in Spike."
"Aren't bathrooms generally naked places?"
"I'm behind a curtain, besides its not like you haven't already seen me naked." Dawn said indifferently.
The vampire walked into the bathroom, a frown on his face from Dawn's earlier comments. He smelled himself and realized he smelled quite ripe himself. Deciding to test her comments, he locked the bathroom door and stripped off his own clothes. "Hey!" Dawn yelled reflexively when the shower curtain was pulled back.
Spike stepped into the shower with her. "What? We've already seen each other's unmentionables, and I can still feel where that consecrated dirt was." He defended his right to be in the shower with her.
Dawn turned her head to face him, but didn't say anything. She was strangely drawn to him, and didn't feel shy around him at all. Truth is told she didn't feel much of anything, but around Spike she felt like she might be normal again-some day. "You don't need to talk pet. Let me wash your hair for you?" Spike knew that she just wasn't up to talking about anything, but he felt compelled to do try to comfort her in some way.
She blindly reached for one of the shampoo bottles and handed it to him. Dawn heard Spike squeeze some of the liquid into his hand and set the bottle down. With gentleness she didn't expect he began to shampoo her long tresses. He started from her scalp and worked the shampoo through her hair, stopping to squeeze more from the bottle to thoroughly cleanse her hair. The motions form his hands were soothing, and she unconsciously felt herself backing towards him, until she was mere millimeters away from his own body.
Spike ignored his body's reaction to her and was careful not to let her feel his erection. He continued washing her hair, pushing her forward slightly to rinse the shampoo from her hair. "Conditioner." He said softly when he was finished with the first stage of washing Dawn's hair. She handed him the bottle and Spike worked the conditioner into her hair with as much care as he had the shampoo. When his body was under his control, he pulled her back towards him and turned her around to face him. Without saying a word, he picked up a bottle of body wash and a sponge and began to clean her skin.
He bit his lip to keep from wincing when his fingers brushed the consecrated dirt that clung tightly too her. He didn't want her too see him in any pain while he was taking care of her. Spike continued his ministrations and when he had her chest, shoulders, arms and belly washed he sunk too his knees. He reapplied the sponge and began washing her lower body and legs with great care. Locking eyes with her, he gently cleansed her pubic hair, and vaginal area. She didn't say a word or drop her gaze, so he carefully continued his work. When he was done he turned her around and gave Dawn's backside the same treatment that the front had received.
He pushed her gently under the spray of the water and the soap began to run off of her. Spike set the sponge down, and worked on rinsing her hair from the conditioner. When she was thoroughly clean, he took the sponge to himself and quickly washed his own body. Dawn remained in the shower with him, not facing him but enjoying his proximity. When he reached around her to turn the water off he stilled her body, and climbed out of the shower to retrieve a towel for her. Dawn wrapped it around herself and stepped out of the shower.
The two showered and dressed, her in clean pajamas and him in his signature black. She dried her hair, not bothering to comb it out and stepped out of the bathroom. Spike followed her back into her room. When she had climbed under the covers, he had gone back towards the door. "Stay? Until I fall asleep?" She'd asked him quietly.
Spike nodded, and strode across the room to her desk chair. He drew it up next too her bed and sat himself in it, watching her drift off to sleep. He waited until she was fast asleep before slipping out of the room. Spike leaned against the wall, lost in thought as Dawn napped. It was still early in the morning and he was essentially trapped in the Summers house until nightfall, glancing back at the sleeping young woman's room he found himself not really minding.
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