(For disclaimer, etc. - see chapter 1)

Chapter 14 - The Truth Be Told

"Mooom" Dawn stretched out the simple one syllable word til it became it's own sentence. Joyce looked up from the food she was preparing and eyed her younger daughter suspiciously.

"Did you want something, sweetheart?" she asked with a slightly amused expression. she had thought that at fifteen and almost eighteen her girls had passed their whiny teen phases, but it seemed she was wrong.

"Well, see, there's this dance coming up" the brunette began to explain, taking a seat at the counter opposite where her mother stood chopping vegetables, "It's for Homecoming, and I reeeeaaallly wanna go" she told Joyce who's smile was starting to wane, "It's kind of a miracle that anybody even asked me but they did and Andrew is such a nice guy Mom, I mean you met him, you know he's great"

"He might be a good enough tutor for you, Dawn, but other than that..." Mrs Summers shook her head, causing Dawn to make a face. Clearly her mother was not about to be easily convinced when it came to her dating Andrew, or any guy for that matter, still she had to try.

"But Mom, this is the first dance I ever got asked to, and it'd be safe, I swear" she pleaded and Joyce glanced at her before going back to the food.

"We had a deal, and I won't go back on it" she nodded, though she didn't look happy, "If Buffy is going, then I guess you can too but..."

"Um, see, that's kinda the issue" Dawn interrupted, looking pained, "Buffy got asked to the Homecoming Dance, but she's such a big freak she said no, even though she and Spike were totally macking in the back yard and..."

"She and Spike were..." Joyce's eyes went wide and the knife that had been in her hand clattered to the floor. She held onto the counter top and breathed deeply, telling herself not to panic. Buffy was practically a fully grown adult now, and besides she'd only kissed this boy so far... she hoped.

"I wouldn't worry, Mom, she totally blew him out when he asked her to the dance yesterday" Dawn rolled her eyes, thinking how stupid her sister must be. Spike was so much the hottie, in that punkish badass kinda way. It was totally beyond Dawn how anyone, even her freakish sister, couldn't find him attractive and want to spend every minute possible with him.

"Well then, we don't have a problem" Joyce reminded her, "If Buffy isn't going to the dance then you're not either" she said simply, turning away to continue cooking the family meal.

"But Mom, you cannot do this to me!" Dawn squealed, voice rising til only dogs could hear her, "I can't not go! I promised Andrew, and it's only one night, just a few hours..."

"Dawn, I don't want to hear it" Joyce told her, getting annoyed, "I changed the rules because you begged me to, and you and Buffy both agreed. Both of you go out or neither does, that's the way it is whilst you live in my house"

Dawn's eyes filled with tears as she struggled to find a suitable argument, but it was futile and she knew it. With a little sound of upset and anger she stormed out of the kitchen, letting the door slam behind her as she bolted up the stairs, just as Buffy let herself in the back door.

"What's going on?" she frowned and her mother sighed.

"Dawn wants to go to some dance, and I reminded her of the rule of this house" she explained, "If you're not going, which apparently you're not, she's not going either"

"I am so not going" Buffy agreed immediately, "It's so lame. I have better ways to spend tomorrow night" she said, as she passed through the kitchen and headed upstairs behind her sister.

Though she meant what she said in some ways, in others she knew it was all a lie. It might've been fun to go to the Homecoming Dance with Spike, it was starting to seem as though everything was more fun when he was around, but memories of a previous Homecoming Dance that didn't end so well made her almost fear attending another. As she reached the landing she paused by Dawn's bedroom door, hearing her sisters painful sobs. Though they didn't seem to get on so well, the Summers girls still loved each other, and when one knew the other as suffering it was impossible to feel good about that.

With a sigh, Buffy went closer to the door and tapped on the wood.

"Dawnie?" she called softly as she let herself into the room. Dawn was face down on her bed, crying into the covers.

"Go away!" she yelled, but the blonde ignored her and came further into the room, dumping her jacket and bag on the floor, and sitting down beside her sister on the bed.

"I'm sorry I ruined your chance to go to the Homecoming Dance" she said sincerely, and immediately the younger girl was sitting up and looking daggers at her through red-rimmed, blood-shot eyes.

"You're not sorry" she shook her head, "You don't care about me, or what I want. You only care about yourself!" she said nastily, and Buffy's face hardened at the accusation.

"That's not true" she insisted, "I just... I don't wanna see you get hurt, Dawnie" she reached a hand out to the younger girls head but she shied away.

"Why would I get hurt?" she shook her head, "You think you're the only one who knows how to defend herself against guys, just cos you take all your classes in whatever the hell it is you and your slutty friend do"

"Don't talk about Faith that way" Buffy snapped, though she knew the description of her friend was true, "And I'm not just talking about guys going further than you want... Sometimes you can think you want it too, and then... well, you don't know Connor that well and..."
"You don't know him either" Dawn argued, though of course the younger Angelus boy wasn't even an issue at this point, since she wanted to attend the dance with Andrew. The point was she disliked her sister trying to control what she did and would argue at every turn til she felt better.

"I know Angel" Buffy reminded her sister, looking down at her hands in her lap, "I know him better than I wish I did..." her voice got quieter, til her sentence trailed away completely and Dawn frowned. Her sister didn't do quiet and almost worried, not lately anyway. She said what she meant and she meant what she said, that was just the way she was these days.

"I don't... What do you mean?" the younger girl asked and Buffy got up from the bed crossing to the window and looking out at the darkening sky.

Today was not going well, she thought to herself. She'd spent her whole time at school avoiding talking to Spike after the incident yesterday where things had gone so well and then suddenly so bad. She wasn't sure if he'd tried to find her and talk to her at all, if he had it wasn't obvious.

Now she had to tell her sister something she'd never told anyone, not even her mother, not even Faith. In the end it was probably for the best that Dawnie knew but...

"Okay" Buffy sighed eventually, "I'll tell you, but this stays between us" she said, glancing back at her sister who nodded dumbly, almost afraid of what she might be about to hear.

"Okay" Buffy said again, before she began her story, "It was my first Homecoming Dance at Sunnydale High, and I was so excited" she smiled at the memory as she went back to staring out of the window, "I was pretty popular back then and it wasn't a huge surprise when Angel asked me. I said yes right away, without a care. He was gorgeous and sweet and all I wanted was to be with him" she shook her head, now not really knowing how she could ever have been so stupid, "Things were awkward with Mom even then. One hint of an idea that I might be going on a date, and World War Three would've started right there and then, so I didn't tell her" she sighed, looking back at her sister, "You remember that trip you took to Aunt Joan's place?" Buffy asked and Dawn looked thoughtful before she nodded.

"We were all supposed to go for the weekend but you begged Mom to let you stay over at Willow's" she recalled, "You'd promised to do a project or something lame like that"

"There was no project" Buffy told her, "I wanted so badly to go to Homecoming with Angel, and it seemed like everything was working out so perfectly. He picked me up from the Rosenburgs house, and he was going to drop me back there after" she smiled sadly, "That was the part that got kinda messed" she admitted as she sat down beside Dawn on the bed once again.

All kinds of awful things were now running through Dawn's head, terrible things that might've happened to her sister. None of them were true of course, which she was about to find out.

"We had a great time at the dance" Buffy went on to explain, "We even got Homecoming King and Queen, and I thought I could never be that happy again. It was like this magical night, I felt like a princess. Angel said I looked like one" she recalled, "He said I was the most beautiful girl in the world, and that he loved me so much... all he ever wanted to do was show me how much" she looked up from her hands that played with the edge of the comforter and met her sisters eyes, the look she gave her conveying her true meaning.

"You and Angel?" Dawn gasped, more than a little stunned, "You...? When you were...?"

"We were fourteen" Buffy said, feeling a little ashamed of herself if she was honest, "I hadn't really known him all that long, to be honest now I look back I didn't know him at all, but he was saying everything I wanted to hear, all about love and happily ever after endings" she said, trying to hide the tremor in her voice, she hated to think of what she'd allowed him to do, "We came back here, the house was empty, and he... stayed the night" she explained, without actually saying the words that were so disgusting even in her own head.

"I'm not saying he made me" Buffy assured her sister, who's mouth was opening and closing like a landed fish by now, "I wanted it too, and it wasn't the worst thing ever but, it wasn't the greatest either. I went to sleep in his arms, and woke up alone, without even a note to explain where he'd gone"

"Maybe he just..." Dawn began, only to be interrupted by her sister.

"Maybe there was an emergency, maybe he was worried about Mom catching us, maybe he felt too much for me and he was scared" she shook her head, "Dawnie, I thought all of it, all day, all weekend. I tried calling him but he was never around, and by the time we got to school on Monday things were... different"

"He dumped you?" Dawn checked, thinking it was a little weird, she was sure Buffy had dumped Angel, or they'd just grown apart or something.

"Not exactly" Buffy said sadly, "He just never really talked to me again, and when I finally managed to confront him about what had happened, he... well he wasn't exactly complimentary, about that night or anything else" she explained.

"Wow" Dawn was stunned by the revelations she'd just heard, "How did I not know this?" she asked.

"You were too young, Dawnie" Buffy reminded her, "At twelve and with Mom and her anti-guy speeches, you'd barely noticed that boys were for dating" she smiled, "But now it's time I told you, time you understood. Guys aren't perfect, especially not guys named Angelus" she told her, a little surprised to see Dawn's expression grown angry.

"That's not fair" she snapped, "You can't say Connor would use me, or anybody, just because Angel used you"

It didn't matter really, she didn't plan on dating Connor anymore anyway, but he was still a nice guy and she didn't like her friends being put down by her sister, no matter what had happened in the past.

"Dawn, he does everything Angel tells him" Buffy pointed out, "And even if he didn't, he's still a guy, and deep down they're all..."

"No" the brunette interrupted, "You can't say they're all like that, you don't know" she half-yelled, annoyed that for just a couple of minutes she'd managed to get a decent conversion out of her sister and now suddenly they were back to how they always were, Buffy being anti-men psycho bitch girl.

"I just... I just wanted you to know" the blonde sighed, she couldn't argue over this. She'd told Dawn the truth and there was no more she could say right now. She just had to hope she'd shocked her enough with tales of her own life to stop her from being so naive.

Buffy left her sisters room and went to her own, tears filling her eyes as she sat on her own bed, running her hands back through her hair and trying to be calm. She hated Angel for what he'd done to her, what he'd taken from her. It was because of him, and her mother's attitude, that she'd became what she was now, hard and cold with almost everybody.

Spike made her feel like the old Buffy, the one that knew how to fall in love, and how to be happy. The black cloud that lived over her head went away when she was with him, the sun shone brighter than it ever had before and as cliché as it sounded she felt like she could do anything when she was in his arms.

Maybe she was stupid for saying no when he asked her to Homecoming. The likelihood of him acting the way Angel did was as close to zero as was humanly possible, and even if he did turn out to be bad, she wouldn't be so easily led astray this time.

Dawn was crying again, Buffy could hear her even at this distance. She wanted her to understand, but it didn't seem as if she did. Now it seemed like everybody was going to suffer, herself, her sister, Spike, Connor. All of them were innocent, or at least they seemed to be so far. Buffy couldn't judge Dawn's choice of boyfriend, she really didn't know him, and it was unfair to all concerned to make comparisons.

Angel was not a good enough reason to ruin a night that should be so perfect for everybody, and the sudden realisation that he might be winning somehow if she didn't go to Homecoming made Buffy more angry than upset.

"No way" she said angrily, reaching for her cellphone. Her finger paused over the numbers as she checked one last time if this was really what she wanted to do, and then she dialled the number.

To Be Continued...