Chapter 2: Enter the Scoobies

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He breathed a sigh of relief as he spotted home.

Good, didn't get damaged...

 As he walked onto the porch, he realized he needed to put her down to open the door.

"Ok luv, gonna set you down for a second, ok?" He tried to gently lower her. She clung to him with Slayer strength.

"Well, let's just see if I can't get that door open even with you in my arms..."

It was a bit of a tricky maneuver, but he managed.

Carefully setting his precious bundle on the couch, disentangling her arms from around him, he shut the door.

"Dawn!" he called out, not too loudly, afraid of scaring Buffy. "Dawn, you here?"

"Spike!" Dawn bounded down the stairs.

"Nibblet! What the bleedin' hell happened to you?"

"Sorry, Spike. I wandered off a bit, and then one of those bikers chased me... I guess I outran him, or maybe he just lost interest. I decided I should just come back here, rather than-"

"Dawn." Spike cut off her torrent of words. "Calm down. Something happened."

"Something bad?"

"No, something good, very good... but you have to be calm, ok, Nibblet?"

She nodded at him with large, frightened eyes.

"It's... it's Buffy. She's... she's back."

Spike watched as Dawn slowly processed this. He could see she was becoming excited, but managed to control herself. "What? You mean, really back, as in, alive?"

"Yeah... in the living room, in fact."

Dawn raced over to the threshold. Barely recognizing her sister underneath all the dirt and grime, she slowly approached. "Buffy? Is that really you?"

As she got within a few feet, Buffy withdrew, began whimpering again. She turned frightened eyes to Spike, begging her savior for protection.

He was at her side in a flash, arms around her. "Shhh... it's ok, luv... it's just Dawn, your sister, remember?"

As he continued calming Buffy, he turned to Dawn. "Obviously, she's had some kind of traumatic experience... she's a tad skittish right now... I've dealt with worse before, though, with Dru," he reassured the girl. "Nibblet, why don't you fetch the first aid kit, all right?"

Dawn nodded, not fully understanding what was going on, but wanting to help.

Dawn reappeared from the kitchen carrying medical supplies.

"Got it," she said, handing the box to Spike.

As she entered the living room, the front door burst open and the others rushed in.

Willow: Is she here?
Anya: She's here!
Willow: You're here.
Xander: We didn't know where you were.
Anya: You ran away.
Willow: Buffy!
Tara: Are you okay?

The four spat the questions at Buffy in rapid-fire. She curled into Spike even further, hiding her head against his chest once again.

Shocked, Dawn gasped, "How did you know she was back?"

Willow: A spell. We, we did a spell.
Anya: We didn't think it worked, but... (to Buffy) You're not a zombie, are you?
Xander: Anya!
Willow: Are you in pain?
Xander: What do you remember?
Tara: What do you know about what happened?

Buffy started crying, while Spike tried to soothe her quietly, leaving it up to Dawn to defend her big sister.

"Hey! Back off!" Dawn commanded.

The Scoobies looked at Dawn in surprise.

"She's... she's obviously upset. She's had some kind of traumatic experience," the young girl explained, borrowing Spike's words. Taking charge, Dawn said, "I think you all need to leave now. We'll take care of her."

Willow: But we brought her-
Tara: We want to help-
Xander: Spike should get out-
A chorus of voices spoke out.

"QUIET!!" Dawn shouted, glancing back apologetically at her sister and Spike as Buffy's cries got louder. Turning back to the four Scoobies, she continued more quietly. "Go. Now. We will talk about it tomorrow."

Again a babble of voices arose.

Disgustedly realizing that they might not shut up any time soon, Spike lifted the trembling girl in his arms.

Unsurprisingly, it was Xander who exclaimed, "Hey! Where do you think you're going with her, Dead Boy?"

"I'm going to put her in her room. You lot are scarin' her to death with all this racket." Spike responded softly, still using his calm voice.

As he expected, noise rose up behind him as he went upstairs. However, he trusted that his Nibblet would take care of them.

Meanwhile, he had Buffy to take care of. He decided to head to the bathroom first.

Away from everyone else, she calmed down enough to let him set her on the toilet seat.

As he wet a washcloth and began gently trying to get at the worst of the mud, he kept up a soft, running monologue, which seemed to soothe her.

"There we go, just gonna get you cleaned up a tad... don't worry about th' Scoobies, they're just all excited 'cause you're back... as am I... oh, luv, you don't know how much I've missed you!" he turned away to hide a sob, trying to get his emotions under control. He needed to remain calm around her.

He turned back to washing her. A few minutes later, Dawn hesitantly stopped at the threshold of the bathroom.

"Hey, Spike," she said softly. "They're all gone... they weren't happy about it, but I got 'em to leave. I think Xander was the only one who was really upset with you being here, the rest just really wanted to help Buffy... oh, and here's the first aid kit," she said as she handed it to him.

"Thanks, good job, Platelet... I think you can come a bit closer, big sis is doin' a bit better now... I'm gonna tackle her hands now, might need your help with that."

As Spike lifted Buffy's bloodied hands up, Dawn gasped. "What happened?"

Grimly, Spike replied, "Looks like she had to dig herself out of her own grave. S'not fun; 've done it myself."

As the two began cleaning and bandaging Buffy's hands, Dawn asked, "But... the others, they brought her back, so... why would they leave her in her grave?! That's... that's so horrible!"

"Yeah, Nibblet it is... wakin' up in your own grave is a terrifying thing," he said, shuddering at the memory. "But th' Scoobs can be right bloody wankers, sometimes. Look at 'em, not tellin' us about this lil' project of theirs... 've got some worries 'bout Red and her magic, too. Can be a dangerous thing..." Spike thought out loud.

Shaking himself back to the present, he asked Dawn to help get her sister into her room.

"I think we'll leave off anything more till tomorrow. We got all th' wounds cleaned, we'll get the rest of her tomorrow. Think she mostly needs sleep now... here, let's get her into a nightgown."

Dawn decided not to ask how he knew exactly where all of Buffy's clothing was. She watched, surprised at his gentleness, as he helped Buffy get out of her dress and into something more comfortable.

"You look like you've done this before," Dawn commented.

"Yeah... had to help Dru with her clothes pretty often... ok, well, we're all done here, let's let big sis get some rest."

Although she'd been quiet for quite some time, Buffy began protesting, screeching, as Dawn and Spike left her. She calmed down once they returned to her side.

"Listen, Nibblet, why don't you go get ready for bed, and then you can sleep here with big sis, k? I'll stay here till then."

Dawn nodded eagerly, and scampered off to get ready for bed. Sometimes, during the long summer without Buffy, she'd curled up next to the Buffybot, taking what comfort she could find from the robot. Sleeping next to her actual sister sounded wonderful.

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Buffy had put up a bit of a fuss when Spike left her with Dawn, but settled down quickly enough. She fell asleep quickly, obviously exhausted from whatever she'd gone through.

Dawn, however, did not get to sleep quite so easily. She lay next to her sister, staring at her face in the moonlight. It was hard to believe that this was actually her sister, and not the Buffybot.

As Dawn drifted off, Anya's question, "Are you a zombie?" resounded in her head...

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A/N: A HUGE thanks to those who reviewed!!! See, you review and then you get another chapter - it's called bribery ;o) (Or positive reinforcement, if you don't like the term bribery)