Note: I've never written Dawn before. I hope it's right. Lots of implied death in this chapter. Don't throw things at me.
Chapter Three -- You're Real
Pleasure and pain at the same time, he reacted. Not even sexual arousal had felt this good. She laced her fingers with his, but still did not move any further.
"You're really here," she choked out.
"I'm real. How many ex-watchers do you know that would go parading around in just their skivvies just to hold hands with a girl." He smiled slightly.
Dawn snorted. "Well, there was this one time Giles. Oh well, never mind. Let's just say I saw a little too much of him. Scarred me for life."
Wesley chuckled. He actually was able to chuckle. Dawn snickered, and then they both lost it. They both laughed so hard, there were tears running out of both sets of eyes.
Dawn moved closer to him, never breaking contact. The flashlight put her face in shadow, but he could tell that she relaxed a bit. At least she wasn't yelling hysterically any more.
She lightly touched his face with her fingertips, tracing all the contours, until she was done with that and moved down to his neck.
"So many scars. How on earth did you get that many scars?"
Wesley held his breath, savoring her touch. Three damn months. "Very long story. Lots of long stories actually," he finally said.
"They're old then?" she asked.
"Most of them, yes." He put up his hand to touch her face and she flinched. She turned her head to hide her face in shadow.
"How did you find this place?"
"I happened to drive past it.'
"You have a car. We can get out of here. I have to find her. She's out there somewhere." Dawn panted the words out so quickly that he almost didn't understand her.
"Find who? Is it Buffy? Just breathe in and out and start from the beginning."
Dawn moved closer, sitting right in front of him, face still covered with her long brown hair. "She was here. Now she's not. She hasn't come back for me yet."
Wesley couldn't believe that the slayer would purposely abandon her sister. Which meant only one thing.
"How long have you been here Dawn?"
"I think it's been almost three weeks. I'm not sure exactly. Buffy set me up here, then went out. She hasn't come back. Can you help me find her, please?"
Should he tell the girl that the likelihood of her sister coming back was virtually nil? "Dawn, do you know what's happening out there? About the demons?"
Dawn flinched when he said the word demon. "Yes."
"It's been a long time since you saw your sister."
"No, she's not dead. She promised she'd come back for me."
He didn't want her to get hysterical again, but he knew the truth needed to be told so she could grieve now instead of holding it in for later.
"I know she promised, Dawn. I need to tell you what has been going on out there."
She cringed and then to his astonishment climbed into his lap. His boxer-clad only lap. Dammit, he would not get horny for a teenage girl who had been traumatized beyond belief.
"They came at night you know. Buffy had set up traps so I'd be safe. The first two went down pretty fast. The last one was really smart. He followed me. I couldn't get away."
Wesley wrapped his arms around the girl, rubbing her back for comfort. He wasn't sure he wanted to hear the rest of the sad story.
"What happened next, sweetheart?" He could feel her tremble.
"He caught me. I struggled. He did this to me." Dawn sat up so Wesley could see her faint scars on her young, beautiful face. "He cut me some, just for fun. Then he tried to . . . "
Dawn couldn't finish the sentence.
"Oh sweetheart, I'm so sorry." Wesley concluded that whatever demon had tried violated her at least hadn't stolen her will to live.
"The stupid asshole had put down his knife when he attacked me. He never saw it coming. Took me days to clean up the mess and get rid of the bodies. So, yes, I can imagine what it might be like out there."
Wesley looked into her eyes. They were harder beyond her years. Yes, she had figured out how tough it had become.
"You know what the kicker was Wesley? They were human. All three of them. That's where all this food came from. And I'm alive today."
He could see the strength in her eyes now. She may not be a slayer, he thought, but she had certainly learned a thing or two from her sister.
"Their car?"
"It was up on the road, out of gas."
"Not there anymore," he laughed. "Scavenged probably."
It felt so good to hold the girl. He rocked her back and forth, almost like a small child. Her body relaxed into his.
"She's not coming back, is she?" Dawn finally said.
"I don't think so. It's been too long Dawn."
The tears flowed down her face. His bare chest became wet, but he didn't care. Someone actually needed him again.
"What will we do?"
"Run. Make our way to the Canadian border. Try to get across."
Dawn sat up and listened. Her arms were around his neck.
"You think we can make it that far?"
"We have to try. Both of us have lasted this long."
Dawn placed her lips on his. He knew what she was trying to do. Trying to feel alive again. Pulling back, he looked into her sad eyes again.
"I really don't think that's the right thing to do."
"I just . . . I'm scared." Dawn sighed, putting her head on his shoulder.
"I know. So am I. Let's just not complicate matters at the moment."
"Can you stay with me? I just need to feel another human."
Wesley shuddered with acceptance. He could feel his heart begin to fill with hope again. Protecting this girl though could cost him his life.
"Let's get my things. Then you can tell me your story."
Dawn was much too quiet as they gathered up his supplies. Probably thinking about all he said about her sister. Would she believe it though? He set his sleeping bag next to hers. The tears in her eyes shown brightly. She turned so he couldn't see her reaction. Now what did he do?
"Dawn is there something that you want?"
"You."
That admission threw him for a loop. She was a girl, not even legal.
"I mean, not that way. Unless, well, that's what you want. I just thought."
"Thought what? That I'm like those other men? I do have to admit that it's been a very long time since any human has touched me. If I've done anything untoward, I apologize."
She turned around to look at him. "I just wanted you to hold me."
"You just had to ask," Wesley told her as she launched herself into his arms.
She smelled sweet, young and innocent to him. Not unlike another young lady in his life had so long ago. Now she was gone with the rest of them and here he sat with another one. Oh, the irony. He lay down with her. They both sank into one another.
"We need to turn the flashlight off. Conserve the battery and all," Wes added.
"It's OK. I'm not frightened. You're here now."
After he flipped off the light, Dawn literally attached herself to him. It no longer pained him to have her touch him. It felt good, familiar, right.
The girl's breathing slowed somewhat. Nodding off to sleep, he thought. Something that he should do also. Before long, that's just what he did. Nice, dreamless slumber.
When he awoke the next day, he couldn't tell what time it was, since there wasn't much light coming in from the crack under the small door. Dawn's comfortable presence was not beside him. Now that worried him.
Just when he was about to go search for her, the door opened and she appeared. He let go of the breath he was holding. The guard that he had erected around himself over the last three months had totally left him vulnerable.
"Good afternoon, Mr. Wyndam-Pryce. How are you this fine day?" Dawn greeted him with a very Giles like accent.
"Just fine, I guess. Wait, it's afternoon?"
"Yeah. You were exhausted. I let you sleep." She carried his jeans and a tee shirt over to him. "Thought you might like these."
Wesley shook his head and just stared at the beaming girl. He'd need to get his game face back before the two of them went back out into the real world. The spell he had worked last night would last one more day. Then, they'd have to move. Never stay in one place too long.
"We need to inventory your supplies. Need to find a good place to loot. I haven't had meat in a week, so we should find some protein first."
Dawn walked over and pulled out a bag of beef jerky.
"Beef jerky. Oh, Dawn. This is wonderful." He yanked out a piece, bit into it and chewed like it was the best filet mignon he had ever tasted.
"More where that came from." Dawn flashed her light over to the boxes of foodstuffs that she had acquired while paying a very steep price. "They had boxes of the stuff. Dried fruit, nuts, drinks. You name it, they had it in their car."
Now Wesley was amazed. Not only had the girl carried all of this stuff down to her little haven, she had also gotten rid of the bodies and cleaned up after it. Summers' blood was made of stern stuff.
"How long did it take to get all this stuff down here?"
"Oh, only a day. I left a little of it in the car, let whoever scavenged it that someone had abandoned it in a hurry so they wouldn't nose around too much. Lucky that didn't happen."
Resourceful was what she was. Kept her head about her mostly. She'd be an asset to him, not a hindrance. Not that it mattered.
"I dragged the bodies down to the salt beds and pushed them off of a cliff. Figured the salt in addition to the vultures would finish off the bodies. Didn't deserve a decent burial."
She'd killed three in self-defense. He just wished he could have done it for her so she wouldn't have to relive it every day.
Now that it was daylight and the door was open, Wesley could see the conditions under which Dawn had been living. The room had no windows to speak of. No natural light unless the door was open. She had efficiently stacked all the food to one side, labeling each box. There were about a dozen in all.
There were also a few weapons present. The crossbow, which she had used to subdue him, a wicked looking knife, stakes and an ax, were piled into a corner. When he added his weaponry, consisting of his shotgun, two handguns, crossbow, sword and his ax, they had quite the arsenal. He just hoped she knew how to use them.
"Do you know how much food you have left?"
"Yeah, since hey just little old me eating, not much of a challenge. Adding you to the mix, well that changes things."
Wesley had just bit into another slice of jerky. Did she want some kind of payment? "How so?" he asked while still chewing.
"What are you going to contribute?"
The girl was being cheeky with him. The amused grin on her face said it all.
"Looted some toothpaste and some shampoo at my last stop. Got a couple of shirts, jeans, and lots and lots of weapons. Would you like to see?"
He never thought he'd see someone so excited about what weapons he had at his disposal, unless it was Gunn or Angel. Now they couldn't share in this little ritual any more. A seventeen-year-old teenage girl could. The irony would have Gunn rolling on the floor with laughter. Angel would probably even chuckle.
Pulling out his guns made Dawn ooh and ahh. She took his crossbow to look at the sight, shaking her head approvingly.
"You can use all of these?" she finally asked.
"Of course," Wesley answered, a little indignant. He knew of his reputation with her people in the former Sunnydale.
"I didn't mean, you know, that you didn't know what you were doing. It's just, you have one version, then another version, so it's hard to go between Version 1.0 to Version 3.0 without knowing what happened in Version 2.0."
Her logic spun Wesley's brain around for a moment. She sounded way too much like the wicca, Willow.
"But you survived this long. Do we really have to leave? We could stay."
Her optimistic vision wasn't unexpected. But he hoped she realized that she had been living on borrowed time by hiding in this godforsaken place. Someone or something would have found her sooner than later. He was glad he found her sooner rather than dead later. She'd already had one very close call.
"Dawn, you know that we cannot. We'll leave at first light tomorrow if it seems safe."
The look on her face was clear. She knew he wouldn't lie to her. Did she trust him enough to get her through this? Could he get her through it? He hoped to God he could.
TBC
I know, relationship between Wesley and Dawn. Can I just say Eww. This will not be that kind of romance. Not that there aren't authors out there who have taken that challenge on and done it well. It's just not right in this context. So enjoy and read on.