Title: Not All Angels Have Wings (2/?)
Author: TJ Theriault
Disclaimer: If anyone actually thinks I own ANY of the characters in this story, I'm guessing you'll wanna check out this bridge in New York that I'm selling...
Pairings: B/X, Rory/Tristan Willow/Kennedy (what can I say? I'm a hopeless romantic)
Spoilers: General spoilers for Gilmore girls, and Buffy's on its last season, anyway. Mention of future surprise guest stars inside!
Summary: Dawn and Rory bond over local Scoobie Gang gossip.
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Dawn and Rory had been talking for hours when Lorelia excused herself to find a place for the two Gilmores to stay. Dawn had told them about the seediness of the only motel in town, but Lorelia exclaimed that anything was better than the bed and breakfast that the two had stayed at outside of Boston. After hearing the frightening tale, Dawn had to agree.
"At least let me ask your mom and Buffy if you could stay with us," Dawn said to her newfound friend. "My house is technically the unofficial halfway house for anyone who wants to survive Sunnydale in one piece."
"It can't be that bad here," Rory said. "I mean, what could possibly happen in a town named Sunydale?"
"You'd be surprised," Dawn mumbled under her breath.
Lorelai returned to the table with two more cups of coffee and a worried frown. "We seem to have the worst luck with road trips," she said with a hint of sarcasm. "Every room in the motel seems to be booked." She handed a coffee cup to Rory and started to sip her own. "It seems that a local band and its groupies have staked the place out for themselves."
"Local band?" Rory asked.
"We've got an all ages night club called the Bronze that's not too far from here," Dawn supplied. "Bands from all over California go there to test out their new stuff on a wider audience then just drunken frat parties."
"What's the name of the band?" Rory asked
"Something about babies being eaten," Lorelia said with confusion "Doggies or something..."
Dawn choked on the iced mocha she'd been sipping lazily for the past fifteen minutes. "D-dingoes?" she asked in total shock.
"Yeah!" Lorelai exclaimed triumphantly. "That's it! The Dingoes Ate My Baby!" Realizing what she'd said, Lorelia went into a sudden bout of histerical laughter.
"Oh boy..." Dawn groaned, banging her head several times on the table. Lorelia, having gone through the same thing with Rory, shoved a few napkins under Dawn's head, in between thuds. "Thanks," Dawn mumbled. Lifting her hed to the sky, the young Scooby shouted, "Why now, huh?!" Ingnoring the dumfounded looks she got from Rory and her mother, the younger Summers continued her tirade. "She was just starting to get her life together, and now you decide to throw this in her lap?!"
"What's so bad about the band?" Rory asked, trying to cheer the young girl up. "Do they stink or something?"
"No," Dawn groaned out meekly. "They're pretty good, actually." Titling her head, she corrected herself. "At least I think they're good," she said. "It's been a while and Oz hasn't been to Sunnydale for a few years, so I wouldn't really know."
"Who's Oz?" Lorelai asked, drawing the name out as much as she could. "Some boyfriend that left you to go tour with his band?" If there was good gossip to be had, Lorelia wanted to be in the thick of things.
"It was an old friend of Buffy's, actually," Dawn explained. "He dumped her during their first year in college."
"Another girl?" Rory asked, having gone through almost the same thing herself with Dean. They'd broken things off the week before the big trip, due to what Lane had called 'artistic differences'. Accordind to her best friend, Rory saw herself with Jess and Dean saw her with him, hence the breakup.
"Yep," was all Dawn said. Noticing their hesitant stares, she took a deep breath before she told them, "Tara was too much for Oz to handle." Seeing that more explaining was necessary, she continued. "She loved Willow too much, so Oz stepped aside and told her that he needed to find out who he was without her."
"Willow's a girl, right?" Lorelia said. After Dawn nodded slowly, Lorelia added, "What do you mean by was? Did they break up or something?"
Dawn's head drooped down, and she had to stop herself from hitting it on the table again. "She was..shot by a stray bullet that was meant for Buffy." Holding back the tears, the key continued. "Willow didn't take it well."
"Define 'didn't take it well', " Rory asked.
"He's dead now, and Willow killed him." Seeing the shocked looks on their faces, Dawn added, "But she's doing much better now! She learned how to control her anger and she's even starting to see someone new." Smiling, Dawn took another sip of her mocha. "Kennedy's the last person I'd expect Willow to fall for, but she's as good for Willoww as...as Tara was." Taking another sip, she steadied herself again. "I'm sorry," she said. "Tara was the closest thing I've ever come to actually having a close female friend. Willow and her were starting to get along after a bad breakup, but before I got a chance to know her better..." Dawn let the floodgates open, crying into Lorelia's open arms.
"Let it all out," Lorelia cooed, stroking the young girl's hair, much like what she'd done for Rory after her split with Dean.
"Thanks," Dawn mumbled from behind a tissue that Rory had offered her to dry her tears. "After my mom died, Tara sort of took her place." Sniffing back the last of her tears, Dawn said, "I guess that Willow's not the only one that took it bad."
"I know how you feel," Rory said. "My dad isn't dead, but he might as well be." After seeing the look of confusion on Dawn's face, Rory added, "He's got another kid and a fiance, so he doesn't visit anymore."
"My dad's been M.I.A. for close to a decade now," Dawn said with sadness. "He left mom when I was really young, so she and Buffy were all I had left." Holding back anohter sob fest, she contined. "When she...left us, Buffy wasn't far behind. She...went away for a few months to clear her head. That's when I got to know Willow and Tara better." Smiling, she asked about something she'd been wondering about the conversation they'd been having. "Why is it that you didn't even blink when I said that Willow is a Lesbian?"
Rory had to laugh this time. "When your mother has you at sixteen," she said with a smirk, "and the town you live in is quirkier than any episode of Friends, not much tends to shock you anymore."
"Aha," Dawn said with amusement in her voice. Smiling the first genuine smile she'd had since the beginning of their coverstation, she looked both Lorelai and Rory right in the eyes. "Sunnydale should be a walk in the park for you, then."
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Hope you liked it. It took a while to get this typed, due to lack of inspiration and that pesky thing called real life. But hey, my last fics before this one haven't been uptated yet, and it's been a year! I'll post the next part once I work out how to work both Oz and Charlie into the same story as bandmates. (Mumble, Mumble... Darn muse and her surprises....)