Disclaimer: Buffy, the Vampire Slayer, and Angel are property of Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy and the WB. Not mine, please don't sue.
Chapter 10: Feels Like Today
It was eerie, driving through the nearly deserted streets of nighttime Sunnydale. Dawn pressed her forehead against the passenger side window of the jeep and allowed her mind to wander. The last time she'd driven down this street, she'd been in the back of a small yellow school bus, her forehead pressed to a different window, desperately fearing for her sister's life. It was weird, how no matter what you did to the time line, certain things had a way of repeating themselves. True, Buffy wasn't a Slayer anymore, and true at the moment Dawn was in a speeding jeep and not a bus, but her forehead was still pressed to a pane of glass, and she still desperately feared for her sister's life.
She felt Connor slip his hand into hers as they flew by the 'Now Leaving Sunnydale sign.
Destination: Los Angeles.
*
The occupants in the waiting room cringed collectively as another scream echoed down the hallway. While they doctors hadn't been able to stop the former slayer's labor onset, it was taking a good long while for the next Summers to be born. Each of them would be lost in their own thoughts until a shout or a scream would reach their ears. Then their gazes would meet, lock, and then they would look away. It was the third time they'd repeated this cycled when Willow came rushing into the waiting room. She burst into a rapid babble as she nearly slid to a stop in front of them.
"Willow, Sugar." Lindsey drawled, putting his hands on her shoulders for a calming effect. "Breathe, then talk." She inhaled.
"Dawn and Connor left." Willow began. Everyone reacted at once, and Willow had to hold her hand up to silence their outrage. "I overheard them talking. They were talking about some stuff I didn't understand, and then Dawn mentioned Glory." She continued.
"What about Glory?" Anya interjected. "She's dead."
"Not about her exactly, but about that night." Willow answered. The rest of the group knew exactly what night she was referring too. It was the night they'd almost lost Buffy and Dawn, but some power must have been watching out for them because the portal had closed on it's own. No one had understood how.
"Did Dawn tell Connor what really happened that night?" Xander wanted to know. They had all suspected Dawn had been keeping the real events of that night to herself.
"Sort of." Willow replied. "She mentioned jumping into the portal, Xander."
"What do you mean, jumping in? She didn't jump in." Xander's tone indicated his confusion, and he was the picture of exhaustion.
"Don't attack me or anything for saying this, but what if she did?" Lindsey asked the question that all of them were dreading. Once asked, it meant they had to answer it, and none of them were sure they could...or that they wanted too.
"Let's say, hypothetically, she did." Willow theorized. "How could she of? She's always been there. Always." Her voice cracked at the thought of something terrible happening to Dawn.
"Are you suggesting that bright, beautiful girl we've been helping Buffy raise isn't Dawn?" Xander was angry. He was beyond angry. It was bad enough that one of his best friends was down the hall fighting for the life of her child, but to have that same friend's little sister not be her little sister? It was too much to take in.
"It's possible, Xander." Willow was quiet. She didn't want to think it either.
"No." He uttered one word, met her gaze with anguished eyes. "No. It's not possible. You misunderstood." Willow hugged him.
"Where are Dawn and Connor now?" Lindsey asked, wanting to get the situation straightened out before Buffy and Angel got wind of it. This would be the last thing either of them needed, and somehow, Lindsey was sure he would get blamed.
"They headed out to the parking lot, and then I lost them." Willow was teary now, stepping out of Xander's embrace.
"Did they say where they were going?" Lindsey questioned.
"No, but they did say something else." She answered.
"What?" Anya chimed in, afraid to ask for the first time in her life.
"She was blaming herself, saying that none of this stuff with Buffy would have happened if it wasn't for her. Sh-she said that this wasn't her world...and then Connor said he knew a way to fix it. That's when they took off." Willow finished explaining. Lindsey gathered her close, and Xander wrapped his arms around Anya. A voice speaking from behind them made them all jump.
"Where's Dawn?"
*
She sighed for the millionth time in an hour. Connor spared another glance at her. He knew she was worrying about her sister, and frankly, so was he. If this didn't work...
"Dawn?" He said, getting her attention.
"Yeah?" She replied, not looking at him. He wondered what was so interesting about the dark highway.
"We should be there shortly." He told her. With the speed that he was driving, the normal travel time from Sunnydale to L.A. had been shortened considerably. They had to hurry. There was no telling if they would be able to reverse the things that had happened, but if they couldn't, Dawn would never forgive herself if something happened to Buffy and she wasn't there. She probably wouldn't forgive him either, he realized. That thought spurred him on, and he pressed a little harder down on the accelerator.
Dawn felt the car speed up, and she mentally urged them onward. Time was of the essence. It was a funny thing, Time. It could drag on forever, making some thing undesirable seem to last an eternity. It could fly by with out realization, when something was so interesting you stopped paying attention to it. In situations like this, she was aware of every tick of the clock, but the minute hand kept moving on even as she pleaded with it to slow down.
They fell silent, and the jeep sped on.
*
"Dawn?" Willow squeaked, turning around and coming face to face with Angel.
"Yes, Dawn." He said, sounding impatient. "Buffy's demanding her presence."
"Dawn, Buffy's sister?" Xander asked, sticking his foot in his mouth. Anya elbowed him and he inhaled sharply.
"Yes, Dawn. Buffy's sister. Tall, brunette, about 17 years old." Angel said, looking at each of them like they'd gone crazy.
"Ooh, Dawn." Willow replied, her recognition sounding completely silly.
"Um, yeah, Dawn." Xander chimed in. Angel sighed. He really wanted to hit something.
"She, uh, she..."Willow began.
"She's not here." Anya jumped in, annoyed with their foot in mouth disease. They'd been secret identity people for years and they couldn't come up with a convincing lie on the spot?
"Well, where is she?" Angel was getting impatient.
"She went to get Buffy some flowers. She looked in the gift shop, but they didn't have the ones Buffy likes, so Connor took her to the florist shop." Anya told him, mentally patting herself on the back. Take that! Angel visibly relaxed.
"I'll tell Buffy she'll be here soon, then." He said, turning around and heading back to the petite blonds' room. Xander pulled Anya to him
"Have I told you today that I love you?" He said to her.
"Xander, what are we going to do?" Willow asked, her tone tearful again.
"What we always do. Books all around." He answered, trying to sound confident.
*
The lights of L..A. had been visible for the last fifteen minutes, and Dawn was now twisting anxiously in her seat as they began driving down the streets of L.A.
"What's the plan?" She asked, speaking up. He looked at her, taking his eyes off the road for a minute.
"We're going to a post office." He answered.
"A post office?" She looked confused and upset. He put a hand on her arm.
"Yeah. The Gateway of Lost Souls is underneath it." Connor explained.
"I don't understand." She replied.
"We're going to see the Oracles."
"Oracles?" She wanted to know.
"Mythic creatures that can alter time and space and have a supposed link to the Powers That Be." Connor went on, taking her hand again. He turned a corner and looked at her again. "We're going to ask them to turn back time."
"Do you think they'll do it?" Dawn whispered.
"We'll make them understand..." He trailed off as the jeep plowed into something big and dark in the middle of the road. Dawn screamed and then everything was quiet.