A/N: Hi. Yeah, that's all …
Thanks you, paige, funkydevil206, Emma, Moonjava, for the comments!
Disclaimer: Why, yes, I do own BtVS. That's why I'm broke and the show's canceled … All belongs to Joss and ME, people. Chapter titles are courtesy of Evanescence lyrics.
Rating: PG-13. Swearing, angst, violence, previously minor child abuse. You have been warned …
Pairings: B/S eventually. W/T, X/A.
Distribution: Yeah, sure, take it. Tell me first, though.
Reviews: DEFINITELY! Reviewers are the best!
Previously: Hank is buried, Buffy and Giles reunited, and Anya shows up with surprising news …
"I'm fine, Buffy, but you're not. I think, you might have a stalker …"
Later, Buffy might've thought back, and been thankful that Anya's arrival and her flooring news gave her no time to contemplate her almost-kiss with Spike, but in this moment, all she could do was stare at her friend incredulously.
Things got more interesting when Willow and Tara appeared behind Anya.
"Hey, Buffy, is everything OK?" Willow asked, seeing her friend's expression. "I told Anya you were back here 'cause she just showed up seeming really worried about you. What happened?"
The redhead grew increasingly agitated when no one seemed to have any answered, and her girlfriend clasped her hand in a silent gesture of comfort.
Spike, on the other hand seemed skeptical. "Why do I feel like I jus' got thrown into the middle of some soddin' soap opera? You can't really believe tha' Buffy has a –"
"Why would I lie about this?" Anya cut Spike off with a glare. "As Buffy's friend and manager, I only have her best interests at heart! Who the hell are you?"
At that, the blonde in question snapped out of her daze in time to keep Spike from voicing his sharp retort, and to remember her manners. "Anya, this is Willow, Tara, and Spike," she pointed to each one of her friends in turn, giving a somewhat superfluous introduction. "Guys, Anya."
Tara was the first to react. "N-nice to meet you, Anya," she offered with a warm smile. "Now, d-do you guys want to go inside to t-talk about this?"
The group filed obediently into the living room. Tara and Willow offered to make coffee, and after being no-so-subtly elbowed and kicked several times, Spike was dragged into the kitchen to help them.
Buffy looked at her friend worriedly. "Are you sure you're OK, Anya? I've never seen you look--"
Anya smiled, small and tired. "It's really nothing. I just haven't slept while."
"Wow. You always get your beauty sleep, except for that one time when you thought you had figured out a way to get enough money to die rich," Buffy joked half-heartedly.
"Well, at the rate I was going, I would have only been a millionaire by the time I died," Anya pouted. "You can't expect me to be happy with that."
The girls smiled at their on-going joke, but Anya grew serious once more. "Buffy, you really have to know about this. The other day, when I went to check on your apartment, the front desk said that a box had just been left for you. They gave it to me, and it looked like a box of flowers, so I was going to open it and put them in water."
Buffy opened her mouth to speak, but Anya waved her question away. "That's not the problem; I'm getting there. It wasn't just a box of flowers. It was a box of dead flowers, crawling with maggots."
Buffy covered her mouth in surprise, and she saw Willow – who had just entered the room – make a face and nearly drop the tray of drinks. None of them felt able to stomach anything in that moment, anyhow.
Anya continued, " There was a card, typed. It read: 'I found you. Now you will pay.'"
Buffy looked puzzled, trying to remember if she had made any enemies.
"I know, it's pretty lame, as threatening messages go, but it should still be taken seriously."
Willow, Tara, and Spike all hovered by the doorway, unsure of what to do, but now, the redhead offered an opinion. "If Buffy really is in danger, she should be OK here, right? I mean, the stalker-person sent the flowers to her in L.A."
"That's why I hope she could stay here a little longer," Anya replied. "Until we get some answers."
"Wait, I should get a say in this," Buffy cut in. "How can you be sure that it was meant for me? Did you go to the police, Anya?"
"It's not a priority to the police. No one's dead, 'it could be a prank,' they said."
"And you know that it was a message to me because?" Buffy prompted.
"The letter was addressed to Buffy Summers."
Spike was the first to see the significance, remembering everything the blonde had told him about the past five years of her life. "Wait, Buffy Summers?" He asked.
"Yes, Buffy," Anya clarified, "not Elizabeth."
oOoOo
Soon, the group decided that they could find no immediate solution to their problem, and they decided to turn in for the night. Buffy offered to share her room with Anya, and Spike was resigned to making a permanent camp on the couch.
They all fell asleep with troubled thoughts on their minds.
oOoOo
Buffy woke the next morning to see that Anya was already dressed, and chatting away happily on her cell phone. She briefly wondered at the fact that there were people as crazy as her friend, willing to get up at such an early hour to work.
Her thoughts were cut off as she heard the front door open and close, and Xander shouting for Dawn to get ready to go to school. Anya, curious as ever, left the room to meet the new arrival, and Buffy decided to get up before her outspoken friend managed to shock Xander to death.
She seemed to be a little too late, however. After a quick shower and getting dressed, she arrived downstairs in time to hear Xander introducing himself to Anya.
Buffy also heard Anya's reply of, "Nice to meet you. I'm Anya … Wanna be my orgasm buddy?"
Unable to hold her laughter as she heard Xander choke on his coffee, she walked into the kitchen.
"Morning, Buffy," Anya greeted as if nothing had gone wrong. Xander was still hacking, feeling thankful that everyone else was in the dining room.
"Morning, Anya," Buffy replied, hiding her smile. "I think you just broke Xander."
"Hey!" Xander finally stopped coughing. "I'm not broken! Just surprised … with a side dish of startled. Is everyone in L.A. like this?"
"Nope," Anya said happily. " Just me. I find that by being forthcoming, I tendto save time that could be put to better uses – namely getting more money and orgasms."
Xander, having returned to drinking his coffee, promptly broke into another choking fit.
"Wow, Buffy," Anya addressed her friend while eying the brunette curiously, " is he always this prone to choking?"
"Um, no." Buffy couldn't hide her smile as she subtly moved Xander's cup away from him, fearing for her friend's health. "But I think, since he's an old-fashioned kinda guy, you might wanna start with asking him out."
Anya frowned for a moment. "OK. Xander, would you like to go on a date with me before becoming my orgasm buddy?"
Thankfully, Xander had braced himself in preparing for shocking words this time, and so did not fall into another fit. He did turn a lovely shade of tomato red, though. He paused for a moment before stuttering, "Yeah, sure, Anya. That'd be, um, nice."
"Great!" Anya smiled happily. "You can pick me up at 7 o'clock sharp."
Dawn walked through the room and dragged a half-dazed Xander out before he had a chance to reply, muttering something about evil teachers and being late again.
Anya waved good-bye happily before re-glueing her ear to her phone and continuing her business calls. Just because she wasn't in L.A. and she had just gotten a date with a cute – albeit a little clueless – guy, didn't mean she was going to let her job slide.
Buffy watched the whole exchange with a smile. Despite Anya's bluntness, she had a certain charm that, more often than not, got her what she wanted.
"Playin' matchmaker for the Whelp?"
Buffy jumped and turned around, seeing Spike. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she noted with disappointment that he was fully clothed this morning.
"Do you have to do that?" Buffy asked irritably.
A raised eyebrow. "What?"
"That sneaking thing – oh, never mind. No, I wasn't playing matchmaker. Anya and Xander did that on their own. Though Anya did all the asking and Xander just did a lot of choking."
Spike laughed. "You're friend looks like she could be good for 'im. 'E hasn't 'ad a serious girlfriend since tha' Cordelia bird."
Buffy nodded absently, then turned a startled glance at the bleached blonde. "Wait. Xander dated Cordelia? As in snob-queen Cordelia Chase?"
Spike frowned a little. "Um, yeah, think tha' was 'er las' name. Why?"
"Don't you remember the 'We Hate Cordelia' club? Tell me what happened. This sounds like blackmail-worthy material."
The two sat down to a late breakfast as Spike began sharing his evil secrets, their worries momentarily forgotten.
oOoOo
"Hello, Summers' residence." Buffy answered the phone, then frown as she realized that it wasn't really just the Summers' residence, and she had no idea what to call her temporary home. She shouldn't even be answering calls in the first place, but everyone else was busy: Spike and Tara at the gallery, Anya still on her cell, and Willow studying.
The person on the other end didn't seem to care, though.
"Hello, this is Principal Snyder at Sunnydale High."
That nasal whine brought back a few unpleasant memories of high school, yet the man barreled on before she had time to reply.
"I'm calling to inform you that Dawn Summers has decided to leave school grounds and ignore her afternoon classes. Normally this would not be such a great issue, and she would be reprimanded with a simple detention, but already, this has occurred several times this month. If this behavior continues, we will be forced to take more drastic measures. Speak to her, or I will."
Snyder hung up. Leaving Buffy to stare at the phone. Typical, she thought. He doesn't even bother to find out whom he's talking to.
Pushing thoughts of the incompetent principal out of her mind, Buffy went to find Willow.
"Hey, Wills," she knocked softly on the doorframe of her friend's bedroom.
"Yeah?" Willow looked up.
"That was Snyder, saying that Dawn was skipping class again," Buffy explained. "Why didn't you tell me she did this?"
"There hasn't exactly been time," Willow said pointedly. "And I didn't think it was that big a problem since Dawn has been doing better lately… is it?"
"I dunno," Buffy admitted. "Snyder said he would take 'drastic measures,' but that's not such a big threat. I'm going to go see if I can find Dawn. I think I know where she might be."
"If you're sure," Willow said doubtfully, "but go easy on the lecturing and yelling, it's been hard for her."
Buffy sighed tiredly. "I'm not going to lecture her. I just want to talk …"
oOoOo
Buffy got out of her car and walked towards the small circle of trees, and sure enough, she could hear Dawn's voice drifting out. She saw her sister sitting, facing their mother's grave stone.
"… and Buffy came back the other day, mom. She's famous in LA, and I guess you would be happy for her. But she's, like, completely different. I thought I was mad at her, but I'm not so sure, and--"
Buffy cleared her throat, causing her sister to spin around swiftly.
"What are you doing here?" Dawn's eyes narrowed.
Buffy shrugged as nonchalantly as she could. "I just wanted to visit Mom. What about you?"
"I'm done." Dawn walked past Buffy to leave, but the blonde caught her arm.
"Wait, Dawn, talk to me, please?" Buffy pleaded.
"Why? What d'you want me to say? That everything's perfect now that you're back?" Dawn bit out.
"No, I don't expect you to feel that way, but I do want you to tell me what's wrong." For once, Buffy was the patient one.
"You're asking me what's wrong! You can't tell!" Dawn exclaimed angrily, hands balled into fists at her side. "You LEFT me. God! Everyone I ever cared about leaves. Mom left, Dad was completely gone all the time, and when I thought you would always be with me, you left!"
Exhausted, the teenager burst into tears, and her sister quickly gathered her into her arms. Dawn fought a little, then gave up and just let herself be held.
Buffy rocked back and forth. "Oh, I'm so sorry, Dawnie, I never saw it like that. I thought I could do something in L.A. I thought you'd be OK here. I'm sorry …"
"You could've at least called or taken me with you or something," Dawn sniffled, though she had grown a slightly calmer.
"You were safer in Sunnydale," Buffy murmured. "And you know me and my stupid stubbornness. I didn't want to call until I was sure I had a way of supporting us, and by then, I thought it was too late."
"You were stupid," Dawn agreed, although there was no venom in her words.
"I know. I really am sorry for leaving you. Next time I do something dumb, you can come along for the ride."
"Thanks," Dawn smiled a watery smile.
The two sat in comtemplative silence for a moment, just holding each other.
"You owe me lots of shopping and pampering," Dawn said seriously, breaking through the quiet. "Exactly 5 years' worth."
"That I can do," Buffy replied with a grin as she stood up with Dawn. "Ready to go, now?"
The brunette nodded and the two set off.
"You know, about Synder …"
Dawn tensed for a moment.
"… I can't believe that he hasn't been fired yet," the blonde continued, seemingly oblivious. "You'd think the school board would have seen his uselessness by now."
"I know," Dawn agreed with a grin. "He did the most idiotic thing the other day …"
They walked out of the cemetery with arms slung around each others' shoulders, cheerfully insulting the high school principal. Already, things were better between them.
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le faye