Truth
Disclaimer: Real life sucks so I live in this world where I still own nothing.
Summary: A few truths are revealed.
Reviews: Yes please. Readers Rock but Reviewers RULE!
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Dawn and Jake sat chatting companionably. He was a bit dazed about the sheer outrageousness of what she'd been telling him.
"So what year are you in at school?" He asked, attempting to move to more normal topics. He had the feeling he really didn't want to know.
She smiled shyly. "I'm a junior."
He groaned comically, placing a protective hand on his chest. "Your sister will stake me if I ask you out then?"
"Well, considering that her first boyfriend was a good two hundred and thirty plus years older than she was and her last boyfriend is over one hundred years older than she is, she really has no room to talk." Dawn giggled.
Jake raked a slender hand through his straight tobacco brown hair. "Well, that's a relief." He sighed theatrically. He sobered. "What are you doing after graduation?"
She considered the question for a moment even though she already knew the answer. "I'm moving to England to go to the Watcher's Academy. I'm going to be a Watcher."
"Wesley told Suzie that Watchers were older men." Jake recalled.
"A Watcher can be either a man or woman and they only seem older because the slayer is always young. Buffy became the slayer when she was fifteen. We had a female Watcher visit just before the big fight with Glory that I swear wanted to take Spike home with her and keep him for herself. It was almost embarrassing. He told me all about it during that summer after…" She stopped for a moment remembering that long sad summer.
"So after the Academy?" Jake strove to derail her sad reminiscing.
"I'll be assigned a slayer and wherever she's either living or needed, we'll live there." Dawn got up to go into the kitchen. "Are you hungry? What is taking them so long?"
Jake got up to follow her as she started pulling promising cans from the cupboard. "I'm thinking that we're either at Wolfram and Hart or in a building they own, so it will take them awhile to figure out how to get to us. Or they could just trade the amulet for us." He added, a sparkle lighting his eyes.
She grinned. "Yep, that's just what they should do." She sobered. "I hope Spike's okay."
"I'm sure Xander's taking good care of him." He assured her.
Dawn opened a couple of cans of fruit. Searching the drawers produced silverware. She rinsed the utensils and avoiding contact with the dishes in the other cupboard, they ate straight from the cans. They wandered back to the living room and turned on the television they'd discovered on their earlier explorations. They watched in silence for several minutes before Jake spared a glance at his companion. He was unsettled to see large tears rolling down her heart-shaped face. He scooted closer.
"What's wrong?" He asked gently.
"He died thinking I hated him." She whispered.
Jake drew her head onto his shoulder. "Hush. He loves you. He knows you don't hate him. Even with his memories back, I'm sure he knows."
She buried her face into his shirt. "So much bad stuff happened last year. You have no idea."
He raised her chin with a gentle finger. "I'm the guy who listened to his nightmares for four months. I do have an idea. I also know for a fact that he never stopped loving you or your sister. He's just confused. He didn't mean to reject either of you last night. We just pushed too fast. If we'd used the approach Xander did, he wouldn't have been so resistant. But we didn't know. I'm sure he's better. He just needs rest and support."
"How'd you get so smart?" Dawn wiped stray tears from her face.
"Some of us are just born with both brains and beauty, it's a burden." He sighed, earning himself a half-hearted elbow to the ribs.
The teenager sat up. She leaned forward for a moment. "Maybe so. But I have the remote." She waved the gadget that she'd found on the coffee table in front of his face.
"HEY!"
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Angel dispatched everyone to search the hotel from attic to basement. Spike was nowhere to be found. As everyone converged on the lobby again Buffy sank onto the sofa in defeat.
"They have Dawn and Jake. Now they have Spike too. Can this day get any worse?" She buried her face in her hands.
Lindsey gazed at the door for a moment. He looked back at Buffy. "I don't think they have Spike."
"What makes you say so?" The slayer asked suspiciously.
The lawyer walked over to the door. He opened it and walked over the threshold. Or at least he attempted to. The instant his foot moved to cross the doorway he was repelled back into the room. The force wasn't enough to knock him off his feet. But it demonstrated that there wasn't any way any employee of Wolfram and Hart had spirited the younger vampire out of the building.
"Then where is he?" Angel demanded. "Why would he leave without telling anyone? It's daytime, how can he go out?"
Giles looked at Buffy. "No one told you?" He asked Angel.
"Told me what?" The dark vampire growled.
"Spike's a Daywalker." Buffy studied her fingers distractedly.
"Well, isn't that just great? And he got this when?" Angel's anger was growing.
"We found out yesterday. He was standing in front of a window and didn't burn. I haven't had time to really investigate it." Wesley laid a hand on Angel's arm in an attempt to calm his friend.
Willow looked up from her seat next to Buffy. "I could try a locator spell. We just need something of his. Come on, Buff, let's go check his room for something to use." The redhead pulled her friend up and they went upstairs to Spike's empty room.
Buffy sat on the bed holding Spike's discarded t-shirt in her lap. "Does he hate us that much he had to sneak out?" She asked sadly.
"No, Honey, he doesn't hate any of us…well, except maybe Angel. Oh, and Xander. He loves you. I could see it last night before they did the whole amulet thing. He just needs some time to adjust. You remember how hard it was when you came back. That shirt should do. Let's go see if Cordy has a map. We have a vamp to find." Willow hugged Buffy and led her back downstairs to set up for the spell.
Angel was incensed when the spell revealed that the runaway vampire was at Caritas. "It figures that he'd go get drunk." He raged.
"Now we don't know that's what he's doing." Giles attempted to restore the peace.
"It's what he always does when he's faced with any sort of difficulty." Angel ranted.
Xander got into Angel's face. "No, it isn't. It's certainly not what he did six months ago. If he had, we wouldn't be standing here. He's trying to process memories that cause him pain. He's hurting and he's unsure of what his status is. He's changed. Remember six months ago? Remember how you hurt for him? You felt him die. He went through that first hand and you wonder what he's thinking? He wants to know why. He's thinking he got kicked out of Heaven because he wasn't supposed to be there in the first place. How would you feel if you thought you were in Heaven by mistake? He knows that amulet was meant for you and he died in your place."
He looked around at the shocked faces surrounding him. "What? I can't see these things for myself? That I'm just a doofus who doesn't understand what's going on when the so-called Champion of the Powers That Be hands off the amulet that he was given? You saw him last night, he's processing over a hundred years of memories and most of them hurt. Want to know what he asked me earlier?"
Everyone nodded silently, shaken by the unusually serious outburst from Xander.
"He asked me why Buffy waited until he was dying to tell him she loved him. He wanted to know if he had to die to be good enough to love." Xander ran his hand through his hair in agitation. He gazed around. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a vampire to find." He walked out into the fading afternoon light. The soft click of the closing door sounded louder than if he'd slammed it.
