"WHAT?" Dawn exploded.
Spike gave her the half smile that she used to love so much "Just kidding luv, thought-"
Dawn slapped him across the face. "That is nothing to joke around with. This is none of your business. So stay out of it, and keep Buffy out of it or so help me…"
Spike clenched his jaw. He wasn't in the mood to be slapped around, especially by someone who used to be so polite and respectful. "Thought you should know what it would be like if, and when, I do tell Buffy."
Dawn gave him her hardest glare. "You can't tell Buffy." Spike looked at her, but she couldn't bear to look into his dead eyes. "No luv, I can't. That's something that YOU have to do." Dawn met his eyes, almost as dead as her own. She stood there speechless for a few minutes, as he looked her up and down. He noted the weight loss, the heavy eyeliner and the bags under her eyes. And he breathed in. He smelled blood. He glanced towards her left arm, and she saw him looking. "No…" Dawn began. But within a flash, he had grabbed her wrist and gently pulled the sleeve down to her elbow. He took a photograph with his mind. These scars and cuts would haunt him for a very long time. Every cut, or scar, told a story. Her arm was a journal or pain. He examined the other arm, to find it equally mauled. He rolled her sleeves back down, and gently grabbed her shoulders, then pulled her into a warm embrace.
Dawn didn't know why she let him see her arms. They weren't his business. But then she saw something in his eyes, tears. A glimpse in the light, and then a solitary tear was running down his rough cheek. She felt a tear escape from her own eye, the first tear she'd cried since Tara had left her, abandoned her alone with these ignorant jerks. She looked spike in the eye, and they were both crying, and holding each other. It was a brief moment, but Dawn had let someone back into her world. A world that Spike forbade to be so pained ever again. He vowed to be there for her. He promised her. But when he said, "promise" Dawn's vision went blurry and she saw Tara standing there, and then spike. They joined hands and told Dawn that as long as she let people care, that they would keep dying, and it would forever be her fault. Dawn pushed Spike away, she couldn't lose him too.
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