Title: Blood Ties 3/?
Website: http:magical-worlds.us/scribblings/
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters on Buffy. I also don't own any of the characters from Roswell. No infringement is intended and no profit is being made. This is purely for my own entertainment. Only this plot is mine.
Rating: PG-13
Spoilers: Up to Season 5 for Buffy including the episode The Gift and Season 1 for Roswell.
Pairings: Undecided. You can vote for Alex, Kyle, or Michael for Dawn.
Summary: After the events of The Gift, Hank interferes and sends Dawn to relatives in Roswell. Spike follows, and soon secrets are exposed and lives are changed. Because even though Glory is gone, Dawn still isn't out of danger and neither are the people around her.
Spike arrived in town that evening somewhat disappointed.
He generally liked to arrive with a bang. Unfortunately, there was no easily run over Welcome to Roswell sign he could demolish with a satisfying thud and a crunch. There was a billboard instead; a great big honking billboard. Spike was only able to take out one side with the car since the sign was so wide and he didn't want to waste the rest of his time there when he could be rescuing his nibblet. Instead of backing up and taking care of the thing properly Spike continued into town. So he had to console himself with the knowledge of partial destruction instead of total destruction.
As he reached the center of town he was appalled. These people were all nuts. Granted, he had come across quite a few nuts during his time on the Hellmouth but this took the cake. Everything had an alien theme. It was a tourist trap of the worst sort. He winced at the sight of a giant alien statue waving at him from outside a souvenir shop. That's it; Dawn was coming with him tonight. The hell with staying over until he could drive tomorrow night; they were going to leave tonight and Dawn could sleep while he drove if she had to.
He pulled over to fish out the directions Willow had given him to where Dawn would be staying. Hank had refused to tell them where he was sending Dawn so Willow had had to dig through Buffy's old address book for the address of her aunt and uncle. She had then googled it to make sure the address was correct before writing the directions down for Spike. He knew he had them somewhere. He had been in a rush when Willow had given them to him wanting to get on the road immediately. He remembered grabbing them impatiently but not what he had done with them after that.
A minute later they were finally found in the pocket of his duster. He smoothed out the crinkled paper and quickly reviewed the directions before throwing them down on the seat. He started the car up with a roar of the engine and was about to pull out when he heard it.
Dawn was talking to someone. He could hear it clearly, which meant she was somewhere nearby. Dawn was here.
Spike threw open the door of the car and slammed it after he scrambled out as he scanned the street frantically in the direction he had heard her voice.
There! She was with some other teenagers near a jeep parked in front of a building with a flying saucer complete with flashing lights.
"Dawn!" he roared as he ran down the street.
Down the street, Dawn turned away from the jeep she had been about to get into with surprise. That had sounded almost like… "Spike!" She couldn't believe it; he was here. Tears started to well up at the welcome sight of such a familiar face. She abandoned Max, Michael, and Isabel without a second thought as she raced to meet him halfway.
Max and Michael turned to each other in disgust. Who really went around nowadays with a ridiculous name like Spike?
Isabel however looked on with keen interest. So this was Spike. He's even cuter in person. This was the one Dawn had called family when she pointed him out in her pictures. It was easy to see why she had done so.
Ten feet away from Isabel, Dawn had jumped up into Spike's arms and was wrapped around him like a monkey as she cried and babbled phrases, which Isabel could only hear a few of. "Spike, Spike. I can't believe you came. Where's Willow or Xander? I missed you, Spike. I couldn't say goodbye. I tried, I really did."
Spike had his arms wrapped around Dawn just as tightly as she clung to him. He buried his head in her neck to hide his game face and reassured himself with her scent that she was really there. He had missed this scent.
Dawn and Buffy would have been pretty similar in their scent being family, but Dawn was nearly identical to Buffy since she had been made from her and not Joyce and Hank. Dawn was his last link to Buffy and it was comforting to have a reminder of her scent there again.
Plus, she was his nibblet. Having her scent wrapped around him again was a reminder that he hadn't lost her for good. She had been wrongly taken from him but he had her back again. He relished the feel of her slight weight in his arms and didn't even mind the strain it was putting on his still healing injuries.
Spike didn't know how she had done it but somehow Dawn had snuck into his heart and made a place for herself there. Buffy owned the greatest piece of his heart. He loved the Slayer with an unending passion and all of his demon heart (And demons did have hearts despite what the watchers would have their slayers believe. They just didn't have consciences; that was the difference), but there was a small piece of him set aside for Dawn too. He would always care for Dawn, not like he had loved Buffy because that was completely different, but the closest thing he could equate it to was that she was the sister of his heart. He and Dawn shared a close bond. There was just something about Dawn that made Spike feel protective of her. He genuinely cared about her and not just because she was Buffy's sister. He didn't know what it was about them, but there was just something about the Summers girls that drew you to them and grabbed a hold of you until you couldn't imagine a life without them in it.
If someone had tried to tell Spike even two years ago that he would be this attached to a teenage girl, that he would care so much, even going so far as to let himself be tortured so severely by a hell goddess for her protection…well, he simply wouldn't have believed it. He'd have laughed himself silly as he tore their head off and bathed in their blood. He'd have used their ribs as a quill and written exactly what he thought of their ridiculous claim all over the walls. But it was true. She was his little bit and he loved her. Now that he had her back he wasn't going to let anything happen to her. They would take her away from him over his dead, okay undead, body.
"Shh, nibblet. It's okay. I know you tried. I made a promise and I'll always keep it. Red and the whelp are back in Sunnydale. They couldn't come yet and I wasn't about to wait. I missed you too, nibblet." Inside, he was roaring with relief that he had her back. Spike had been antsy with anxiety since he had found out she was gone, worrying over what was happening to his nibblet without him there to protect her. Without Red's directions it would have taken him a lot longer to find her. His fangs itched with the need to mark Dawn so he would always be able to find her if she was ever taken from him again.
He fought back the desire to do so. This wasn't the time and the place for that. Marking was a special thing, sacred. It was most often used on humans vampires planned to sire to show ownership, and in the case of reluctant soon to be Childre, to always be able to find them if they should escape before the siring process could be completed. It wasn't the sort of thing you did on a public street with anyone watching. And he would need her permission.
It was exactly the sort of thing Buffy wouldn't have approved of, but Buffy wasn't here. So he was going to satisfy a little voice he firmly denied was his conscience, (demons DID NOT have consciences) by getting Dawn's permission first. If one Summers approved, and since Dawn was the only Summers left whose opinion mattered, then Spike was in the clear. Still, he was going to be very careful never to let Willow or Xander find out what he had done. Spike's survival instincts were working perfectly. If there was one thing all demons did well it was look out for number one, and Spike considered himself an expert in the field of self preservation.
Michael cleared his throat loudly. "Care to introduce us or are you just going to paw each other in the street all day?" There was a time and a place for displays like that. This wasn't it. Who was this guy, and why would Dawn be so attached to someone like him? What were Max and Isabel thinking letting their cousin hang all over him like that. He had bleached hair, was wearing leather, and Michael could see remnants of black nail polish on his nails.
Spike fought back a predatory growl. He was not pawing Dawn. It wasn't this wanker's business if he wanted to, either. Not that Spike ever would. That felt so wrong to him. He had always been a one-woman demon and this demon belonged firmly to the departed Slayer.
He willed his demon face back and slowly lowered Dawn back to the ground but kept his arms around her. He ignored Michael who was impatiently waiting for an answer to gently push back a few strands of hair from Dawn's face and brush away the tears on her cheeks. That done he straightened his spine and turned a hard glare on the boy who had rudely interrupted his reunion with Dawn.
"The name's Spike. And who are you? Miss Manners come to lecture us all on appropriate behavior?"
Michael narrowed his eyes. "Michael," he bit out.
"Oh, well then. You're obviously somebody important," Spike said all sarcasm. "Someone whose word is law and should be followed." Spike gently let go of Dawn and stalked toward Michael with a swagger and duster billowing with a hint of menace in his movement. He stopped not two inches from Michael's face, narrowed his eyes, and said. "That's a shame, cause you know what? I'm feelin' rebellious." His eyes narrowed as he continued. "And not in the mood to listen to little teenagers who think they're tough."
"Oh I don't think it," Michael disagreed. "I know it." He matched Spike stare for stare and could feel his energy rise with his anger. He itched to let the destructive force loose. Self-preservation stopped him. The sheriff was already suspicious because of Max and Michael wouldn't be the one to fuel the fire. That wouldn't stop him from doing something when he couldn't get caught later though.
Spike chuckled in amusement and Michael bristled at the sound. "Looks like the little punk's got stones. I could get to like you." He turned around and walked back to Dawn. He said over his shoulder, "We'll never find out though, 'cause me and platelet are leaving."
Dawn's face lit up. "Really? We're going home?" She asked with a catch in her voice.
Spike's face softened and he gently ran a hand down Dawn's cheek. As he spoke his next words, everyone could hear the promise in them. "Yeah Dawn, I'm bringing you back and I'll never let anyone take you from us again."
End Part 3