Chapter Thirteen – Sisters
Olivia was back in the room she was sharing with Buffy and Dawn. After a little over an hour talking with William and Alex Xander came to pick Alex up. He informed them that everything was under control. The master was dust and Buffy and the others would be back in a couple of hours. They were going to make a final sweep to deal with the last of the minions.
Since it was already late Olivia decided she needed some sleep.
She woke up when she heard arguing coming from the common area.
"I don't need a lecture from you Buffy," Olivia recognized Dawn's voice.
"The hell you don't," came the retort from Buffy. "What were you thinking?"
"That you needed the scroll," Dawn said. "I got it and got it to you and Willow. It worked," there was a pause. "Don't give me that look Buffy. You're not the only one allowed to use the 'it worked' excuse to justify your actions."
"Dawn," Buffy said. "That's not what I mean and you know it. You're still learning. You shouldn't do something like that without more preparation."
"I've gotten very good at finding places I've been too before," Dawn replied. "And I can always find you."
"When I'm taking on three vamps," Buffy said. "You could have gotten hurt."
"Come on," Dawn sounded exasperated. "Between you, Faith and Kennedy drilling me, I can take most Slayers one on one. A couple of fledging vamps aren't a threat. Besides, its not like they saw me coming."
Olivia began to get out of bed.
"We woke our guest up," Buffy said. Olivia stopped. She had forgotten about Buffy's enhanced senses. She shrugged her shoulders put on her robe and opened the bedroom door.
She found Buffy and Dawn both standing in the center of the room. Buffy's outfit was covered in dust and Dawn's sleeve was torn. Both sisters looked very annoyed with one another.
"Sorry to wake you Olivia," Buffy said.
"It's alright," Olivia replied. "Xander said everything was under control."
"Yep," Buffy said.
"So what happened?"
"Vampire trying to draw power from killing people," Dawn replied. "Only we didn't know that his target was actually Slayers. Its fortunate someone managed to get a hold of a copy of the spell he was using or we could have been in a lot of trouble."
"We had it under control before that," Buffy said. "He wasn't prepared for a whole squad of Slayers. He thought we would be stupid and come at him one or two at time."
"You still needed the scroll to do the proper counter spell," Dawn retorted. "Underpowered or not, a whole pack of duplicate vampires could have done some serious damage."
Olivia was lost in the exchange. "Duplicate vampires?" she said.
"Nothing," Dawn replied.
"Duplicate vampires are nothing?"
"Just another day at the office," Buffy deadpanned. "Try dealing with a vampire version of your best friend from an alternate reality. That's weird."
"Really?"
"Yes," Buffy replied and turned her attention back to Dawn. "We can finish this later."
"It's over now," Dawn shot back. "Don't try and play big sister with me. I got the job done. No harm, no foul."
"What were you doing at the battle?" Olivia asked Dawn. "Last time I saw you, you were heading down to the archives room."
"Willow needed information and a special scroll to perform a spell," Dawn answered. "I got them."
"Dawn," Buffy started. "I'm not going to be stupid and say you can never go into the field. But you've got other responsibilities now. You have to pick and choose the right times. You have to think about how it affects others. We can't afford to lose you."
"You never though about what it meant to us or me when you decided to leave," almost as the words came out of her mouth Dawn stopped moving.
Olivia's attention was focused on Buffy. For a brief fraction of a second the mask dropped. Most people would have missed it. But Olivia had spent years learning to read other people's pain. In that fraction of second of Olivia saw more pain and loss in Buffy's eyes than she had ever seen before. Then it was gone. Buffy's face became a mask of hardness.
"Oh god Buffy," Dawn started babbling. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean it that way. You have to believe me. I just hate it when you guys try to baby me. I'm so sorry."
Buffy closed her eyes for a second than opened. When she spoke her voice was under tight control. "I know Dawn. It's all right. I know you didn't mean it that way," Buffy turned and walked out the door.
Olivia turned to Dawn who slumped down in a chair.
"I'm an idiot," Dawn said. "I know better."
"Dawn. What happened to Buffy?" Olivia asked. "I know the look she had. I've seen rape victims with less pain in their eyes. What do you mean when you said she went away? Why wasn't she able to stop the others from doing whatever it is they did to trigger the First's attack."
Dawn looked up. Olivia could tell she was deep in thought. "You really don't want to know the whole truth Olivia."
"Someone hurt your sister," Olivia said. "Hurt her enough to make her go away."
"It wasn't going away that hurt her," Dawn said. "It was bringing her back. Back to this life. Back to the Slayer."
"I don't understand."
"You don't want to," Dawn answered.
"Dawn," Olivia sat down in the chair next to Dawn's. "How is she? Really?"
"Most of the time she's pretty good," Dawn said. "She's Buffy. Days like this, when somebody says something stupid."
"What happened?" Olivia asked again. "You mentioned that Xander and the others did something. What they did hurt Buffy."
"It's not that simple Olivia," Dawn replied. She paused again to gather her thoughts. "They convinced themselves they were doing the right thing. That they were helping. They forgot the first rule of magic. There's always a price. The second rule; the price is always higher than you know."
Olivia tried to think of a new approach. "Dawn."
"Olivia," Dawn cut her off. "How many of the images have you seen on the job do you want out of your head?"
That brought Olivia up short. "I don't see how that's related to this."
"How many doors have walked through that you wish you hadn't?" Dawn continued. "This is that kind of thing Olivia. Once you go through the door. Once you see what's inside. You can't just turn and walk away. I like you too much to do that to you. I know the job you do. Alex has told me enough and I've seen enough in my own life. I know you're probably strong enough to hear the truth. But you don't need that burden along with the other ones you already carry."
Olivia looked away from Dawn. The intensity of young woman's gaze was like nothing she'd ever seen before. What could possibly be that bad? And did she really want to find out?
"Does Alex know?" Olivia turned back to face Dawn wanting see the woman's eyes when she answered.
"Yes," Dawn answered. "She knows everything."
"And she's ok with it?"
"As ok as she can be. Are you ok with everything you've seen in your job?"
"No," Olivia answered truthfully. "Sometimes it seems too much to deal with. But I have my partner and the rest of the team. Munch, Fin, Cragen the new DA, Novak, she's pretty good."
"We've got the other Scoobies," Dawn said. "They've been there with us. They're our family."
Olivia nodded in response.
Dawn got up. "Get back to sleep Olivia. There's a wedding tomorrow. And you're the bridesmaid. You need to look your best."
"Where are you going?"
"I need to talk to some people," Dawn answered. "And do a better job of apologizing." Dawn started walking towards the door. She stopped and turned back to Olivia. "Don't tell Buffy this. But I actually kind of like it when she does the big sister thing."
Olivia gave a half smile to the comment and watched Dawn leave. In the morning she was going to have a very long talk with Alex.
