"A doctor." She met his eyes suddenly, sitting up as he returned to the living room with blood and milk. He handed her the milk.
"What's that? Who's a doctor?"
Dawn, it seemed, had inherited Willow's Resolve Face. "I don't know why I didn't think of it before. I could open up a hospital, like a not-for-profit. Seriously no-one ever practices magical medicine. The entire field is unexplored. And I totally have the grades, or I mean I did before⦠mom. I could start that whole thing up again."
"Bit," his voice sounded weary. "That's because magic and medicine don't do well together. People's molecules tend to get muddled up when they try."
"But that doesn't even make sense!" Dawn protested. "It never has! I mean, what's so special about people's bodies that magic wouldn't work? It's just stupid!"
"I think because humans have souls." Spike's voice was distant and chilled Dawn when she heard it. She tried to look into his eyes, but he wasn't there with her. "Nowhere else, souls. More powerful than some tetchy spell."
It was suddenly very important for Dawn to recover his attention. "Spike, Buffy's soul went to heaven. It went to heaven, didn't it? I mean, I know the portal was to Hell but wasn't it to like everywhere else too? She could be in heaven." He looked at her and was undone by her eyes.
"Don't think the portal had anything to do with where she went, luv." He answered as honestly as he could. "Think she went where she was supposed to go."
Dawn nodded, but her throat was making this whimpering sound and her mouth kept twisting. "We'll never know, though, for sure." She stopped there.
"No. Like God and what-all. If you knew, you wouldn't have to believe." He frowned, surprised himself at what he had said.
"So we have to believe." Dawn nodded. It hadn't been a question.
