Back for popular demand! I originally wanted it to be just a short story, but you guys convinced me. I guess you could think of it as a prologue or something. This will be the first chapter. It's a little slow, but all first chapters are. This is set 8 years after the last episode.I hope you enjoy.

Dawn never imagined this was how her life was going to turn out at the age of 25. Dropping out of high school seemed like a good idea at the time, but Dawn wished she wouldn't have been so stupid. But at the time, she felt the need to take some time off and find herself. Dawn had traveled the world. She had been to The Sahara, The Philippines, Hong Kong, Sydney…everywhere. When the time came around, she just never bothered to register back into classes. Buffy was off doing her own thing, so she never had an authority figure to stop her. Dawn decided to move to New York, where she didn't have to be around the scoobies anymore. That was 7 years ago. The last time she heard, the rest of the gang were living in LA. But the last time Dawn had talked to anyone in the gang was a year and a half ago and it was a 30 minute conversation with Willow about how reckless Buffy was being.

Dawn was struggling with working two part-time jobs: One as an assistant manager at (shudder) McDonald's, and the other as a bartender at the local night club, The Blue Room. She rarely had anytime to herself. She worked both jobs everyday and it was terribly exhausting. This was the only way Dawn could get by with such a great apartment.

There was full moon in the sky. The graveyard was spookier then usual. Spike was in his game face and punching the hell out of Derek. Dawn was standing against a mausoleum, just staring at the two. Spike had bitten Derek and he had suddenly disappeared. Dawn was relieved…until Spike walked up to her, still in his game face. Spike grabbed Dawn and threw her on the ground. Dawn started screaming, but no one could hear her. "It's my turn, pet," he whispers to her. Then Dawn woke up.

The alarm went off. 6am. Dawn had a half an hour to get ready for work, then another half an hour to walk to Mickey D's. She could barely reach for her alarm clock, she was so tired.

"How am I supposed work a double-shift when I can't even sit up? Okay, 10 more minutes, and then I'll get up." Dawn closed her eyes, not really caring if she woke up on time or not. About two hours later, Dawn got a phone call from her work. She shot out of bed, threw her work clothes on, and ran out of her apartment building. Dawn was speed-walking through the huge crowd. Not paying attention, she bumped into a middle-aged woman, knocking her over.

"Oh my God. I'm so sorry!" Dawn helped the poor woman off of the sidewalk.

"That's alright, honey." When the woman stood up, she reached into her pocket and pulled out some change, "Here you go. Find something to eat." The woman just smiled and kept her hand out. Dawn gave her a confused look.

"I don't understand…" Dawn had no idea what this woman was trying to do. The woman looked her up and down.

"Oh, Gosh! I didn't realize that you weren't…" The woman put her change back in her pocket. Did she think I was homeless? Dawn didn't know what to say.

"I'm sorry, honey." And with that, the woman walked away, blending in with the rest of the crowd. Dawn just stood there with her mouth open. Why would she think I was… Dawn walked over to a display window and looked at her reflection. My God, I DO look homeless! Dawn had dark purple bags under her eyes, extremely pale face, her hair was ratted, and she looked too thin. She looked like a homeless heroin addict! She sighed. I'm pathetic.

4 hours later, Dawn was a screaming wreck. Nobody was doing their job the way they were supposed to, she caught someone stealing from the cash register, and it was their busiest moment of the day. When she finally got a break, Dawn sat at one of the back tables of the restaurant with a large soda and a small fry. She leant her head against a window and closed her eyes. A few minutes later, the manager came over and sat across from her. Dawn didn't even notice.

"Ahem. Dawn?" Dawn immediately sat up.

"What? What's wrong?" Dawn was depressing her manager. Dawn's eyes were squinty and bloodshot. Her manager sighed.

"Dawn…Has there been something going on in your life that you want to talk about?"

"Huh?"

"I mean, I just…you're distraught and exhausted. I've been thinking about it, and I've decided you need some time off." Dawn started shaking her head.

"No. I can't afford that. Please, I just need a little sleep is all."

"Dawn, you've been coming in late to work, you keep forgetting to do your chores. Look, you're a good worker. You just need some time off is all. Come back in a couple of weeks, huh?"

"No. I'll be better. I promise, please don't do this."

5 minutes later, Dawn was walking back to her apartment. She stunk of body odor and French fries. I guess I can wait a month or two to pay the rent. As she walked, she started thinking about how easy it was when she was a kid. Her mom was always at home waiting for to come home from school. She'd make her a snack and help her with her homework. Even after her mom died, Buffy and her friends were there to help in every way they could. They would do anything to protect her, even from guys. Then Dawn started thinking about how Spike protected her most of all. How much he cared about her. Neither of them let on to the rest of the group how much they really cared about each other. Dawn had fallen in love with Spike ever since that night he saved her from that creep, Derek. At least Dawn thought she was in love with Spike—up until he tried to rape Buffy. Then she was just confused for a really long time. She started to believe that no matter how good of a guy seems, maybe deep down, all of them are like that. She had a couple of flings, but she always broke it off before they could. Then she tried some relationships with women. Yeah, women were nice looking and everything, but no matter how hard she tried to convince herself, she could never get excited about having sex with a woman. After the last woman she slept with, she just decided to swear off relationships all together. That was 3 and half years ago. Then Dawn's thoughts started going back to Spike. I wonder how many women he's slept with. I wonder if he ever slept with any guys. Has he ever tried to rape anyone else? Dawn figured what was the point of thinking that? I hate him. I'm glad he's gone. Dawn couldn't help feeling a little guilty when she thought that. She convinced herself it was nothing.

Dawn finally realized that she had passed her apartment building 8 blocks ago. She stopped and looked around, in a daze from all of her thoughts. I hope he's in Hell. She suddenly started to feel very strange, like that feeling of forgetting something or maybe something bad was happening. She shook it off and walked back home.