AN: Dawn's around 19. Lives in her own apartment. And that's basically it. Well, she never had a real realtionship with Spike before; they were just friends. But, of course, she had a crush on him. Yeah, that's all.
Enjoy.
She hopped into the car and put her hands on the wheel. Flipping the visor down, she looked at herself in the mirror. A nice bruise was forming on the whole left side of her cheek. A scab was forming from the angry looking cut. Her lip and the inside of her cheek was still bleeding though. She guessed when he hit her that she was biting on her lip, causing her teeth to go right through it. She slammed her fist down on the steering wheel and sighed.
Slipping on some oversized, round sunglasses onto her face, she started the black Jetta that she bought herself two years ago and squealed out of her driveway. And when she came to the "You Are Leaving Sunnydale" sign, she closed her eyes really hard and blinked them open again. That sign held so many memories.
When she first found out she was the Key, she ran away. No one knows about it, of course, except for Spike. It was right after she cut herself. Hell, she still had the scar. It ran from her elbow down to her wrist. It was why she wore so many long sleeve shirts. Anyway, after she took a knife to her arm, she realized how screwed she was. So, she ran. She ran as fast and hard as she ever had. Blood was pouring out of her wound, so she was fairly easy to track. Vampires came in a pack and stopped her as she was on her way out of town. And of course, Spike came on his motorbike to save the day. After dusting all the fledglings, he saw her arm. He yelled and screamed at her for being so careless. She retorted by taking a broken bottle that was on the side of the road and cutting at her wrist. He threw her up against the sign and wiped away her tears. "It doesn't matter what you are. You bleed. You're real." And then he licked her blood and took her home.
They didn't talk about it. And now she regretted even thinking about it as she shook her head to get those memories out of her head.
Dawn didn't want to think about Spike or William. Especially William. She didn't even want to speak about them. Driving past a 7-11, she decided to get herself a mountain dew slushy.
Slurping on the drink that she got, she continued to her destination. She had a nearly full tank of gas and a slushy that would keep her up until midnight.
Parallel parking onto the curb, she rested her head back on her head rest. Her hands were still shaking and her lip was still bleeding. She took out her makeup case and smothered her lips in a dark red gloss. She, then, rub a dark colored foundation on her face and highlighted her cheek bones with some bronzer. She looked like a clown, but she didn't want to go in there looking like a battered house wife. Running her hands through her hair to smooth it out, she got out of the car.
She didn't know whether she was going to knock on the door or just stomp right through. Going against her better judgment, she walked right in the hotel.
"Welcome to Angel Investigations. How may I help you?" came a sweet voice that she knew she remembered. As Dawn turned the corner, she saw Cordelia.
"Oh my god," she cried. "Dawn!"
She ran up to her and gave her a great big hug. Dawn slowly returned it through the pain of not being able to breathe.
"Angel, get your dead ass down here," she screamed.
"Look, Cordy, I told you I was sorry about-" he stopped mid-sentence when he saw her, or better yet, smelled her.
"Dawn," he greeted with a look of sadness on his face. He shook his head slowly. He should of guessed. He should have known.
"Oh Dawn," he said and she stood in place as he walked toward her. As he wrapped her arms around her, she lost feeling in her knees and fell to the ground. It's when she lost it. Tears came pouring out and he ran his fingers through her hair.
The same way Spike did.
Tears poured out harder and she couldn't control it.
"It's okay, Dawn. It's going to be okay."
Okay, again, stuck with my sequal. What the hell is up with these stupid writers block! Jeez. Anyway, R&R if you have constructive critism or anything.
