Disclaimers: I own nothing.
Karma: Hey! Long time no see, right? Sorry, I've been sidetracked, but I haven't forgotten about this story. I even wrote an extra long chapter to all my loyal fans. Thank you for waiting even though it's been forever. Please keep reading and reviewing. It's your support that helps me to continue on with this story. I promise the next update will be much sooner.
"Dad?" Dawn called out as she entered the apartment for the second time that morning. "You up?"
As soon as he heard his daughter's voice, Spike bolted up into a sitting position, suddenly awake. "Bloody hell." He glanced briefly at the sleeping blonde next to him before getting out of the bed and pulling a pair of jeans on. "Yeah, Platelet, I'm up. I'll be right out." He called out to his daughter.
"Okay, take your time." Dawn replied in an all-knowing voice.
Spike frowned, but was easily distracted by a soft moan from the bed. "Spike?" Buffy asked, still half-asleep. "What's going on?"
"Nothing, luv, the Bit's just home, that's all. Go back to sleep." He told her before placing a soft kiss on her brow.
"Okay. Love you." She mumbled before falling asleep again.
"Love you too." Spike said with a sigh. He shook his head in a vain attempt to rid himself of all Buffy related thoughts. He needed a clear head to deal with his daughter. Spike pulled on one of his black shirts and took a deep unneeded breath before opening his bedroom door to find his daughter staring expectantly at him. "What?" He asked somewhat nervously as he closed the door behind him, doing his best to try to block Buffy from his daughter's view.
"What is she doing here?" Dawn demanded.
Spike's mouth opened in shock, and then closed again making him look very much like a fish. "What do you mean, Platelet?"
"I mean, what is Buffy doing in your bed? Naked." Dawn asked, somewhat annoyed with her dad. She didn't care if they were in love in dating. All she cared about right now was Buffy ruining the one day that was meant to be only for her and her father.
"Oh, that." Spike said before his daughter's words hit him. "Wait a moment, Nibblet, how did you know that Buffy was in my room?"
"I looked, and then pretended to come home again." Dawn said completely unashamed of her actions.
"Dawn!" Spike scolded.
"What? It's what Mum would have done." Dawn defended.
"Your mother also shoved a woman through a meat processor and then fed her to the minions."
"Yeah." Dawn said remembering. "That was cool in a gross kind of way."
Spike chuckled and looked at his daughter, no longer angry with her. "Hungry, Lamb?"
"Starving, actually." Dawn said as she sat down at the kitchen table and watched as her dad began to prepare her a blood omelet. "Um, Dad, you still didn't say why Buffy spent the night. I mean, that's what you did when "Mummy Harm" stayed over."
Spike shuddered. "Dawn, promise me that you'll never call her that again."
"Hey, that's what she told me to call her. After she throws a Versaci Barbie at your head, you tend to listen to her." Dawn told him.
"They make a Versaci Barbie?" Spike asked, bewildered.
"Yes, and stop trying to change the subject."
Spike sighed. "Fine." He put down the spatula and walked over to the table and sat down next to Dawn, taking her hands into his. "Dawnie, Joyce died last night."
"Wh-what?" Dawn asked shocked. "No, no." She slapped Spike's hands away. "She was going to take me to see I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change. She can't be dead. I mean, I saw her yesterday. She was alive. She can't be- Oh God. Did a vampire..." She asked, tears pouring down her cheeks.
"No, Platelet, she had a brain tumor." Spike said as he took his sobbing daughter into his arms.
"She was a better grandmother than Darla was."
"I know, Pidge, I know."
"Much more than that I did it my waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!" Eight year old Dawn Summers Crawford sang.
"Dawn Rose! I know you're not singing that horrible song." Joyce Summers called to her granddaughter.
"Of course not, Grandmummy." She lied.
"Come here, darling."
"No, Grandmum. I'm playing with my dolls." She said, lying once again.
"Dawn!" The grandmother repeated forcefully.
"Coming, Grandmummy!" Dawn called, practically running into the kitchen.
Joyce smiled when she saw her grandchild, but soon frowned when she saw a huge white stain on Dawn's black dress. "Dawn, what did you do to your dress?"
"I didn't do anything. Mum did it." Dawn told her grandmother.
Joyce perced her lips. "Dawnie that's impossible. You're mother is. I mean she's..." She trailed off. "Dawnie, why don't you go put your gray dress on."
The little girl nodded. "Okay, where are we going again?"
"Your father didn't tell you?" Joyce asked, shocked.
Dawn shook her head. "No. I kept asking, but he wasn't telling."
"It's a surprise then." Joyce said, furious at her son-in-law for not telling Dawn what was going on. "Go get dressed."
Dawn nodded and ran off to do as her grandmother said.
"William! Come out here now!" Joyce shouted, straightening out her own black dress.
"Yes, Joyce?" Spike asked as he walked into the kitchen dressed in a black suit, his platinum blonde hair now a dark brown color and completely ungelled.
Joyce wanted to tell him how nice he looked, but she was too mad at the moment. "William, how could you not tell your own daughter that she was going to her mother's funeral!" Joyce shouted.
As soon as the words came out of Joyce's mouth, Spike blushed. "Oh... I didn't know how to tell her, Joyce. I tried, really I did."
She sighed. "Just trying isn't good enough. Buffy's been gone for a week, William, and she isn't coming back. Where did you tell Dawnie Buffy was?"
"Visiting Peaches in LA." Spike said sheepishly.
"Don't call your father that." Joyce scolded, always the mother. "Now, march into your daughter's room and tell her what happened to her mother."
Spike sighed. "Yes, Joyce." He said kissing her on the cheek. "What would I do without you?"
"Well, for one thing you wouldn't have any one to try out your stalling techniques on. Now go."
"Why don't you tell her for me?" Spike asked.
"Go." Joyce repeated.
Spike sighed again, and silently left the kitchen, stopping outside his daughter's open bedroom, listening in to make sure his daughter was in there. What he heard made his blood run cold.
"Yeah, I don't know why Daddy is acting funny. Ever since you went to visit Grandpa, he's been funny. When are you coming back? ... What do you mean you're not coming back? Daddy needs you... I don't care if you're busing in LA, I need my mum here with me."
Spike shut his eyes briefly, letting a tear slide down his cheek. He sighed, wiped the tear away and walked into his daughter's room. "Dawnie, who are you talking to?"
As soon as her father walked into the room, Dawn straightened up and began to play with the hem of her gray dress. "Nothing." Dawn said.
He cocked an eyebrow. "Right, pet." He said sitting down on the small, pink bed. "What's the real story?"
"I'm talking to mummy." She said as though it was obvious.
Spike looked around the room. "Dawn, your mother isn't here."
"She's right there, silly." She said pointing to the window ledge.
"No, Dawn, no she's not. She died last week. There were still injuries from her accident that the doctors didn't know about." Spike said softly.
"Those were just headaches. They weren't anything important." Dawn argued.
"Dawn, your mother is dead!" Spike yelled losing patience.
Dawn stared at her father for a moment before tears began to freely fall down her face. "No." She said shaking her head. "No, she's, no."
Joyce, hearing Spike yell, came into the room. "Dawnie, what's wrong?" She asked, knowing what was wrong, but asking anyway.
Dawn immediately threw herself into her grandmother's arms. "Daddy's being bad and lying. He said that Mum was dead, but she's standing right there." She said in between sobs.
Joyce looked over at Spike who shrugged helplessly. "Come on, baby, let's go wait out in the car. We're going to a funeral." She said pulling away from Dawn, and taking her hand. "Are you coming, William?" She asked as she and Dawn began to leave the room.
"Yeah, Joyce, I'll be there in a sec."
She nodded and left the room.
Meanwhile, Spike stared at the spot Dawn had called her mother. He sat there for nearly fifteen minutes before even muttering a word. "I miss you, pet, I do. What am I going to do with out you?"
Buffy bolted awake in a cold sweat. She ran a hand through her sticky hair. The dream had been so vivid and real that it scared Buffy more deeply than any nightmare that she had ever had. "Oh my God." She reached for Spike, only to find that he wasn't in the bed any more. Suddenly having a Parker flashback, she jumped out of the bed and quickly pulled her pants on. Not seeing her blouse, she pulled on one of Spike's black t-shirts and practically ran out of the bedroom.
Spike, who was sitting on the couch watching All My Children with Dawn, looked up and saw Buffy's panicked expression. He jumped up and ran over to Buffy, pulling her willing body into a loving embrace. "Shh, love. I'm here. I didn't go anywhere. I'm still here." He soothingly told her.
Buffy nodded and clung tighter to him.
Dawn watched her father and the slayer carefully. She really couldn't believe that he was serious about Buffy, but as she considered her father's history with women, she realized that it actually made sense. She knew that it wasn't polite to stare, but she couldn't help but stare at the couple.
Feeling Dawn's eyes on her, Buffy felt uncomfortable and detangled herself from Spike. " I should go. This is definitely a family thing and I'm ruining it."
As Dawn watched the exchange from her place on the couch, she couldn't help but notice the way her father's face fell when Buffy said that she should leave. Without thinking, Dawn opened her mouth and said, "But you are family."
Buffy smiled faintly at the teen's words and let a single tear fall down her cheek. She knew how much the teen loved her father, and she also knew how overprotective of him she was. The fact that Dawn was willing to share Spike with her touched a soft spot deep in her heart. "Thank you Dawnie, but I should go over to Giles to go over stuff for the... you know." She said referring to her mother's funeral.
Dawn nodded. "Okay, but how about I let you borrow one of my shirts so you don't have to go around in one of my dad's? I have a dark pink shirt that would totally go with your pants."
"That would be great, Dawnie." Buffy said.
The teen smiled and led Buffy into her bedroom, closing and locking the door behind them. Realizing what had just happened, Spike groaned. "Bloody hell. If Nibblet pulls a Darla, I'm going to pour holy water into her orange juice." He said knowing very well that his daughter had a secret agenda. His daughter always had a secret agenda.
As soon as they were locked inside the room, Dawn spun around and glared at Buffy. "What are your intentions with my father?" She demanded.
"What?" Buffy asked, very much taken aback. She couldn't believe that Dawn had just asked hew what her intentions were. She felt like she was in an old sixties movie.
"You heard me. What are your intentions with my father?" Dawn asked, arms crossed with a scowl on her face.
Buffy stared at the teen for a moment before responding. "I'm really not sure, Dawnie." She admitted truthfully.
"Are you in love with him?" Dawn bluntly asked.
"I... Well... Of course... I mean... I really don't think you should be asking me... Yes. Yes I do." Buffy babbled.
Dawn stared hard at Buffy as if trying to decide whether or not the blonde was telling the truth. "You better love him. And if you hurt him in any way, I will make your life a living hell. Now, let's find you that shirt."
Ten minutes later, Buffy and Dawn came out of the bedroom. Dawn had a smug look on her face. Buffy had a confused one. Spike looked up from his soap opera and wanted to laugh at the look of confusion on Buffy's face. He got up and walked over to her. "You okay, love?"
"Yeah." Buffy said, nodding. "Thanks for the shirt, Dawnie. I should go now." She said before practically running towards the door. Spike followed her and grabbed her by the arm, effectively stopping her from opening the front door.
"Pet, what's wrong?" He asked, concern written all over his face.
She sighed and looked at him. "It's just that everything is happening so fast, and Dawn going all Darla/Drusilla-ish on me really isn't helping." Buffy admitted.
Spike slowly nodded and let go of her arm. "I'm sorry, pet."
She gently laid a hand on his cheek. "Don't be. It has nothing to do with you. You're the good part in everything go on around me." Buffy gently pressed her lips against Spike's and before he could even register what was going on, she had already pulled away. "I'll see you tonight at the Magic Box, right?"
He nodded. "Yeah, Dawnie and I will be there."
Buffy smiled in response and silently left the apartment. Spike sighed and leaned against the door.
"Did any one ever tell you that you're love's bitch?"
"Dawn Rose! That better have been my mind speaking and not you!"
As Buffy turned a corner to take a shortcut down an alley, she was nearly run over by a frantic monk running down the alley. Immediately she noticed the blood gushing from his side and stopped him. "Are you okay?"
"No, I must keep going. The soldier will find me." He looked up and heaved a relieved side when he realized whom he was talking to. "It's you."
Buffy looked at him. "Do I know you?"
"No." The monk said as he leaned up against a nearby chain link fence. "But I've been looking for you. You have to... the Key. You must protect the Key." He said before suddenly cough a blood filled cough.
She stared at him. "Key? What key?"
"Many more die if you don't keep it safe."
"How? What is it?" She asked beginning to become annoyed with the dying monk.
"The Key is energy. It's a portal. It opens the door..." He cryptically said.
"The Dagon Sphere?" Buffy asked remembering the strange glowing ball that she had had Giles research.
"No. For centuries it had no form at all. My brethren, its only keepers. Then the abomination found us. We had to hide the Key, gave it form, molded it flesh... made it human and sent it to you." He gasped out before going into another coughing fit.
Buffy stared at him in shock as she remembered the spell not even two days before. "Dawn..." She said shocked.
"She's the Key." The monk confirmed.
"You put that in my house? You gave her to Spike and Drusilla to take care of?" She said.
"We knew the vampires and the Slayer would protect..." He said.
"My memories... Spike's? Angel's?"
"We built them." The monk said gasping for air. "We took them from another life. Another world in which she was your daughter."
"The dreams." Buffy realized.
"Were memories from the other life. We mixed your essence with that of the two other vampires and the girl from the other world."
Buffy shook her head. "No, you couldn't do that. Undo it!" She demanded.
The monk started coughing heavily again. "You cannot abandon."
"I didn't ask for this! And I'm sure Spike didn't either! I don't even know... what is she?" Buffy asked, still not sure how her reaction should be.
"Human... now human. And helpless. Please... she's an innocent in this. She needs you. The soldier and the beast will be coming for her." He warned and begged.
"She's not his daughter?" She asked.
"She doesn't know that." The monk said with his last breath.
Buffy stared at the dead body for a moment before, coming out of her trance. She heard footsteps coming and quickly jumped up onto a nearby fire escape hoping that she would see whoever had been chasing the monk.
Riley hurried down the street, and looked for the monk. He groaned as he saw the dead body. "Great. He's dead. Glory's not going to like this. Not one bit." He sighed and left the alley again, not caring about the dead monk.
As soon as she was sure that he was gone, Buffy jumped down from her perch. "Riley?" She asked herself, shocked. "I gotta go find Giles." She said shaking her head. "What a weekend." With that, she ran down the alley and to her watchers, not even wanting to think about the fact that she would have to face both Spike and Dawn that evening.
TBC