Getting There
Chapter Two
Between the Hellmouth and other dangers going on in everyone's life, Willow had taken more then just two months to get her magic working correctly. When she had finished, it had been over four. Her news was taken with both joy and sadness.
"Are you sure that you want to leave Xander?" Buffy was holding Ryan and cooing over the ten month old child while the young adults sat around the living room.
"Buff, I already bought the house. I had the elevator put in, I had the house made livable for me." Xander sighed and turned to Willow, "One last trip with me and Ryan?" He asked softly. Since getting the accounts from the old Watcher's Council, everyone had enough to do anything they wanted, and with Anya's will and stocks, Xander was quite well off. He could have afforded a plane ticket quite easily, yet he wanted to have the other's feel involved.
"Yep. And I'll be over every weekend that I can!" Upbeat and happy for her first friend, Willow couldn't let herself show how much it hurt that Xander was leaving. But she had to be happy for him. He would be free. He was the normal one. Oh, they'd update him on all the comings and goings of demons and Apocalypses, but they would never ask for his help.
"Xander?" Dawn scooted over to the side of the couch closest to Xander's wheelchair and licked her lips, "I was wondering, when I graduate, could I come live with you?" Dawn's question provoked sudden silence on the room.
It was Buffy who found her voice first, "Dawn, I thought you liked it here..."
"I, I do! Honest, but..." The younger Summers sister pulled out bunch of folded papers. "I applied to the Air Force academy there. I didn't want to tell you until I got approved or not. With Xander living there, it was easier to go there then to try and deal with all things demony and the Academy..."
Calming herself, Buffy looked though the approval papers and narrowed her eyes at Dawn's school marks, "How did you get a four point oh grade average?"
With a blush, Dawn sunk a bit into her seat, "I took Gym. Got a A, and Biology was easy with all the demons that we dissect; Math, I got help from Willow; English and German are nothing compared to Ancient Sumerian; Art was creative painting, I painted Spike at a table playing Puppy Poker, Computer Programming was simple; Chemistry sucked, it was so boring; Giles has a doctorate in Law; and who but us has the most experience with Comparing Civilizations?"
"Who's your sponsor?" Xander looked hard a the young woman he considered his sister.
"I asked Riley to help me and he talked to his wife's dad, who's a General in the Air Force, and he said that he'd sponsor me."
"What's his name?"
"General George Allen Hammond. He lives in Colorado Springs."
Xander smiled, "Well, it'll be interesting. Yes Dawn, you may come to live with me. You'll get the upstairs loft bedroom."
"Now wait a sec," Buffy stood up, Ryan cradled protectively close to her chest, "I am Dawn's legal guardian, I have a say in this."
"Please Buffy," Dawn smirked, "How could you possibly say no? You want me safe from all the dangers of the Hellmouth, where better to put me then with Xander in the dead Colorado Springs?"
"Hello?" Buffy wavered her free hand in front of Dawn's face, "Aliens?"
"Come off it Buffy." Dawn snorted and stood, walked over the other side of the room, checking the privacy spells over the living room. About ten mini-Slayers were huddled outside the barrier trying to listen in on the Seniors conversation, "Like I'm going to have any skills that the SGC would want. I'm seventeen, a cadet and all I can do is run really fast."
"Dawn, you read, write and speak Ancient Sumerian plus a smattering of a dozen other dead languages, you're good enough with a sword to spar with the mini-Slayers and you have enough control with magic for Willow to ask you to help her train the mini-Watchers." Buffy hastily handed Ryan to his father and stomped over to her sister, "What more could the SGC possibly want!"
"They'll never find out about those skills!"
"Really? I think that they will. What could Riley have told this General George Allen Hamm-whatever- that would make him sponsor you without even meeting you?"
"You."
That one single word made Buffy stiffen and back up a step as though she'd been slapped. Xander and Willow's eyes widened and they also reacted in about the same way. "What do you mean?" The Senior Slayer's voice was hard and unforgiving.
Dawn shook her head, "No! Not like that like. Remember Sam? She married Riley and you saved both of their lives. Sam told her father about what you did and then said that I, your little sister, wanted to go into his branch of the military. Riley said that he was very enthusiastic about sponsoring me even without meeting him."
"I see." Buffy let a breath slowly out and closed her eyes, "I'm sorry, I..." Dawn didn't let her sister finish, but moved in close and pulled Buffy into a hug.
"I know. I said it wrong in the first place. No more fights, that was the promise."
"One that we will keep." Buffy withdrew from the hug and looked up at her little sister, "I love you Dawn. Never forget." Pulling Dawn back over to the couch, Buffy urged Dawn to sit with her and the Slayer, the original Slayer turned very serious, "Remember what I said to you in the cave under the cemetery after Xander stopped Willow from doing something really stupid?"
"You said that you didn't want to hide me from the world, you wanted to show it to me."
"Well, this is my chance to prove that to you. Do you really want to be an Officer in the Air Force, fly planes and do all sorts of dangerous things that could get you killed in the name of the USA?"
"Yes. I really do Buffy," Dawn took her sisters hand and forced Buffy to look into her eyes, "I want a chance to prove myself to everyone, not just those people involved with the supernatural. I want this."
"Then, if you really want to, my say in this is to go for it with all your heart. Don't do anything by half and don't accept anything better then the best mark possible." Buffy hugged Dawn once again and then turned to Xander, "Are Maria and Naomi still going to be going with you over the holidays?"
Maria Nattai and Naomi Wesburn were two young mini-slayer, ages 11 and 12 respectively. They're families had refused to let the young girls go to the slayer camp, and not more then a week later, the families were killed, the two girl left to watch them burn. Xander, after bringing them to the Home-Guard house, had offered to take them in when the school year, September through June, was out. He was the only one with the money really, and the time, to take care of two young girls who needed as much love as he could show them. They were the ones who most needed to know that there was someone out their who loved them, who they could protect. They had become family and Ryan was doted on by his two big sisters.
"Yes."
"Wait," Dawn stood and cocked her head to the side, "What about the magic? Wouldn't they lose their powers in the dead zone?"
"No," Willow smiled, "I put a clause in, Slayer's aren't to be touched by the magic being drawn form Colorado. I put that in the weekly newsletter that gets sent out to all the parents. If you guys read the dang thing, you'd know that."
"Really? I didn't even know that we had a weekly newsletter." Buffy hid a blush and giggled a bit. She was only acting as dumb as a blonde, she wasn't really. Everyone knew that.
"Yeah, it's more like a magazine then a newsletter, I put everything in, fights, love-lives, friendships and love-hate relationships. Every slayer gets a page."
"Every slayer?" Buffy looked horrified.
"Of course silly," Willow ginned and winked, "You and Faith get two pages each."
"Oh god, kill me now. I will never be able to face any of the parents again..."
"Willow," Xander said apologetically, "I really have to go, Cassie is coming over at four to meet Ryan and tell me if she wants to baby-sit or not."
"Cassie?" Dawn perked up a bit.
"Yah, a year younger then you, she's Jack's niece, or something like that, I can't remember exactly... Anyway, I asked her if she wanted some pocket money and she said she'd like to meet Ryan first, before deciding wether or not to give up a few weekends for some money." Xander smiled, "You should get along fine with her Dawn, her mother's an Air Force Medical Doctor."
"Cool. I'm gonna be living next to a Colonel, have a military brat as a friend and a General who likes me while I go through the Academy. This will be fun."
To Be Continued