Thank you for your reviews. Keep em coming. :) Love to all, Karma

Annoyingly bright sunlight assaulted Buffy's face as she woke up the next morning. Groaning, she rolled over to see what time it was. The alarm clock next to her bed flashed 9:05 in bothersome bright red digits. She groaned and pulled the covers back over her head. She hadn't slept very well after the dream.

Images from the dream kept flooding back to her. 'Lips of Spike. Lips of Spike.' The thought normally would have disgusted, but since her dream, that's all she could think about. Before she knew it, all of her other dreams that she had that night were also filled with dreams of Spike. Dreams that normally would have caused Buffy to blush turned into the only things Buffy could concentrate on. Granted, she had only been awake for five minutes, but still he seemed to be the only thing she could think about.

All of a sudden the tantalizing scent of fried bacon wafted up to her room. Suddenly awake, she threw the blanket off of her and ambled down the stairs, still in her yummy sushi pajamas. Too caught up in her fantasies and thoughts to think about anything else, she blindly walked into the kitchen and sat down at the kitchen table, not even paying attention to who was in the kitchen with her.

"Morning Buffy." A bright voice told her.

Jumping out of her trance, Buffy turned to face Willow who was sitting at the table across from her. "God, Willow, you scared me." Buffy complained. "What are you doing here?" Confusion spread across Buffy's face.

"We're going to the University to register for our classes, remember?" Willow reminded the Slayer. "We're meeting Tara there? And we were kinda supposed to leave five minutes ago?"

Suddenly Buffy remembered. "Oh my God, Wills, I'm so sorry. I totally forgot."

Willow smiled at her best friend. "That's okay. You seem kinda preoccupied."

"She's in love." Joyce supplied. For the first time, Buffy was aware of the fact that her mother was in the kitchen. "Morning, honey." She said brightly as set a plate of food in front of Buffy.

"You're in love?" Willow smiled at her best friend.

"I'm not in love." Buffy insisted as she took a bite of scrambled eggs.

Willow furrowed her brow. "You're not in love with Riley?" The redhead was clearly confused. "I thought for sure you were in love with Riley." She said slowly.

Buffy nearly choked on her eggs. She hadn't even thought of Riley since she hung up the phone last night. Joyce simply smiled knowingly and handed Buffy a glass of water as she began to cough.

Willow however was still thinking of what Buffy had said. 'She said she wasn't in love with Riley, but she's acting like she's in love. I mean, I said hi three times before she even registered the fact that I was sitting across the table from her, waving my hand in her face. She didn't even notice when Joyce asked her how she slept. She has to be in love. If she's not in love with Riley then who is she in love with?'

Buffy could see the wheels turning in Willow's head and quickly got up from the table. "You know, I'm gonna go get dressed."

"Oh, Buffy, would you mind waking Dawn up as well? I have to go to the gallery this morning to speak with a client, so I'll need you to watch Dawn this morning." Joyce asked her daughter.

The slayer stared at her mother for a moment. "Are you serious?" She finally asked.

Joyce nodded. "And hurry if you're supposed to leave ten minutes ago."

Buffy sighed in defeat and walked into the living room and up the stairs towards the guest room. As she neared the room, she could hear Dawn's voice. "Yeah, I know, but I can't do anything today. No, me da went out of town." She sighed dramatically. "I'm staying with the bitch me da left me mum for."

Buffy couldn't believe what she was hearing. This wasn't the same girl she had argued with last night. She was a completely different person behind closed doors. Sometimes she had trouble believing Dawn was fourteen. Now she knew Dawn was fourteen, but didn't know what game she was playing at. 'Half the time, Dawn acts like she's eleven, when she's fourteen. The other half, she speaks in an American accent when she's really British. I thought she hated her British accent. That's how she explains always speaking in her perfected American Accent.' She pressed her ear to the door and listening for a few more moments before deciding she had had enough of Dawn's split personalities. "Dawn?" She asked as she opened the door to the guest bedroom.

"Buffy!" She cried as she tried to cover the mouthpiece of the phone. "Get out!" She waited, but when she saw that Buffy wasn't leaving, she turned her attention back to the person on the phone. "Tommy, I'll have to call ya back. Me da's girlfriend just came in. Yeah, that's the one. And she's only a few years older than me." She gave Buffy a dirty look. "I gotta go, pet." As Dawn hung up the phone, she noticed Buffy's raised eyebrow. "What?"

"Who was that?" Buffy asked still in shock.

"My boyfriend, Tommy." Dawn said slowly.

Buffy shook her head. "No, not Tommy. Who was the person talking to Tommy?"

Dawn looked blankly at Buffy. "What are you talking about?" "You." Buffy explained. As Dawn just stared at her, Buffy decided now was a better time as any to ask her what was going on. "Who was that, Dawn?" She pointed at Dawn. "Yesterday you're all Willowy and spaz-like. And today you're this mini-Spike."

"Get out." Dawn said slowly, but dangerously.

"No, Dawn. Not until you tell me what's going on." Buffy said determined. If some one who had never met Buffy or Dawn had walked into the room at that moment, they would have sworn they walked in on a fight between a mother and a daughter or even a fight between two sisters.

Dawn sighed dramatically. "Fine? Do you really want to know what 's wrong?" Buffy nodded. "I don't know what's wrong, okay? I don't know who I'm supposed to be! Do you know how hard it was to be raised by two vampires? One of which who was always getting into fights and nearly dying every other day? And the other one who acted no differently than a nine year old? Do you know what it's like having to have tea parties with your mom because that was the only time she actually made any sense at all?" Buffy shook her head. "Then don't try to figure me out, because I still need to figure myself out!" Dawn threw herself onto the bed and began to cry.

Before either Buffy or Dawn knew what happened, Buffy was sitting on the bed with her arms around the crying Dawn whispering words of comfort. Neither Buffy nor Dawn knew how it happened; all they knew was that it felt normal. Finally Dawn stopped crying and looked up at Buffy. "Sorry." She said softly.

Buffy smiled softly at the girl. "It's okay. Sometimes we all need to cry." She disentangled herself from Dawn. "Willow and I need to go to the campus to register for classes, wanna come?" Buffy asked her. Dawn smiled back and nodded enthusiastically. "Okay, then get dressed and meet me down stairs in five minutes, okay." Dawn nodded again and Buffy walked towards the door and stopped. "Oh, and Dawn?"

"Yeah?" Dawn asked.

"Does your Dad know about Tommy?"

Dawn shook her head. "No, he'd kill him, chip or no chip. To him, I'm still his little girl." Dawn paused for a minute and then looked up at Buffy with a fearful look in her eyes. "You're not gonna tell him, are you?"

Buffy shook her head. "No, you can tell him when you're ready. But remember you can't be his little girl forever." Buffy said as she left Dawn's room and closed the door behind her.

Dawn sighed and ran her hand through her brown hair. "I know, that's why I don't want to tell him."