Dawn Winchester?

Summary: Dawn isn't a magical clone, she's Buffy's daughter and John's

Disclaimer: If you recognize it, it ain't mine

Dean was sitting in a corner of the living room sharpening one of his knives while everyone else was trying to figure out what Glory's 'living vessel' was. The motion of knife over wet stone was a soothing one, kind of like that meditation chant that old shaman had tried to teach him. He preferred sharpening his knives though. It kind of worried him that everyone was overlooking the most obvious 'creature' for Glory to be possessing; a human. After all, in his experience a lot of demons possessed humans. As he set one knife down, Spike passed him one that was not from his or Sammy's collection. The instant he touched it, he felt his skin crawl. "No thanks." he said hurriedly, passing it back. He grabbed the first of Sammy's knives and tried to bury himself in sharpening it. Anything to shed the crawling sensation that was making his hands sweat. He set Sam's knife down and rubbed his hand on his jeans leg.

"It's ok, Spike." Tara said to the offended vampire. "He was meditating, and he picked up something from the knife. Where did you get it?" Dean and Sam both stared at the gentle witch.

"Got it from that Valnarg we killed last week." Spike said uncomfortably. He hoped he hadn't hurt his nibblet's big brother too badly. He didn't think anyone else had figured it out, but there was no way he could mistake that scent. It was too close to Dawn's. And as these blokes' father had sent them here to deal with Glory, it made sense that their dad was also hers. And he was guarding Dawn while the rest of the family dealt with the danger. That was something he could approve of. Keep the fledge safe, and rip the threat apart. "What do you mean he picked something up from it?"

"You didn't have one of us cleanse it. Not clean the gore off, you did a good job of that. I mean cleanse it's aura. Objects used to kill, especially for rituals like the Valnarg was doing, pick up nasty auras. They need to be cleansed before they can be used by someone who is sensitive to magic or phychic energies."

Spike shrugged. "I'll take your word for it Glenda." Tara blushed as she always did at Spike's nickname for her. "Sorry about that mate. Didn't know about that stuff." While Sam looked at Dean, and Dean tried to ignore his little brother by going back to sharpening the knives, everyone else was staring at Spike. "What? They're here to stomp on Glory. I'm all for that after what she tried to do. No one hurts my nibblet. End of story." Dean and Sam mouthed 'nibblet?' at each other, but shrugged it off as another vampire nickname. Spike seemed to be prone to that. They had noticed Spike's nesting behavior around the Scooby Gang and Dean was determined to look it up in an old hunter's journal he had picked up. The man had been an expert on all breeds of vampires, having hunted and observed them all. Whatever was up with Spike, the answer would probably be in there.

With that in mind, Dean reached for his bag at the end of the couch. Sleeping on the floor of the living room wasn't the best arraignment they could have come up with, but Dean wanted to stay near the Summers ladies. One of them was Dawn's mother, and probably his soon-to-be step-mom knowing his dad. He didn't think it was Buffy of course, but didn't rule it out just on the off chance it was some kind of succubus deal. A have sex or die kind of thing. Joyce, on the other hand was a nice lady, and very supportive of her daughter's slaying. He could see her and his dad hooking up. Be kind of nice to have this kind of home to come visit after the demon was dead. It would even be a good place for Sam if he still wanted to settle down after the demon was toast. Lots to hunt here too.

"I got it." Dean said into the silence surrounding Spike's little speech. ."We just pound the crap out of Glory until she has to retreat into her vessel, and then I kill it. No matter what it is. It, he or she does not survive. I do the killing." He looked around the room. "It's my place. No matter what the creature is, it is most likely an innocent. I've dealt with that situation before, you haven't." Dean went back to looking through the journal. Here it was; Aurliean Vampires. Establishing a new nest. That seems to be kind of what Spike's doing.

"Ok." Buffy said. "That sounds like it might actually work. I don't want to turn over killing Glory to anyone else, but I don't think I can kill something innocent either."

"It's going to take a lot for Glory to retreat." Giles said pensively. "More than what Buffy and Spike can deliver with hand to hand. Glory will kill them both."

"Sammy, call Caleb. He'll get a kick out of us taking on a hellgoddess." Dean smirked, still looking at the journal. Hmmm, orphans? Could that be it?

"No way, you do it. He'll tell everyone, and there is no way I'm going to get a lecture from Pastor Jim."

"Wimp."

"Jerk."

"Just do it. You can ask him about weapons for demonic lemmings while you're at it, since you won't tell me what they look like." Dean smiled.

"God, what did I do to get born into this family?" Sam muttered to himself as he pulled out his cell phone.

"Demonic Lemmings?" Buffy whispered to Dean.

"Yeah. He had a dream about them storming the hellmouth. Don't worry, it sounds like conventional weapons can take them out, there are just a lot of them. Caleb will have something to take them out. Flamethrowers probably." Dean said absentmindedly. This was really starting to get interesting.

"Xander, tell me about Spike." Dean whispered while Buffy rushed over to grill Giles on demonic lemmings. That discussion was getting rather loud and involved just about everyone. Sam left the room so he could get some quiet for his call.

"Why?"

"I'm trying to figure out why he's behaving the way he is."

""He's like that because he's Spike. Bleached menace is suddenly no longer the big bad, and this is what you get."

"Vampires behave in certain patterns based upon their breed. Now we've figured out what he's doing, nesting. I just can't figure out how he got into this situation."

"Nesting? What the fuck are you talking about?"

"He's acting like an orphan, making an alliance and then becoming part of the new nest. Trouble is there is usually a mate in there somewhere. He's not involved is he?"

"Nope, he purved Buffy for a while, but that was one of Willow's spells gone wrong. He demanded blood to wash the taste of Buffy out of his mouth."

"What about Nibblet?"

"NO! That's Dawn, she's the baby. Spike is totally into protecting her, not perving her."

"Yeah, that makes sense. It also goes along with the nesting instincts. He'd consider her a fledgeling."

"As for the orphan bit, yeah I guess that works. I don't think Spike has any childer, he was always too busy taking care of his sire. She's crazy. Left him last year for a slime demon. They'd been together for more than a hundred years. His grandsire is cursed with a soul and that kind of broke up the whole demonic family bit they had going." Xander said thoughtfully.

"Ok, what happened after he got dumped by his sire. He was alone, right?"

"Yep. First he was captured by the Initiative, then ended up with us after he escaped because he couldn't bite Willow. Then we had him tied up in Giles' place for a while. After we figured out he really couldn't hurt anyone he was moved to my basement of doom to stay with me, so someone could keep an eye on him. I still tie him up when I sleep though. I just don't trust him around my neck." Xander shrugged. Spike was sneaky. No one would ever convince him other wise.

Dean suddenly got it, and for the first time ever, felt sorry for a demon. He looked up right into Spike's eyes. No, Dean shook his head at him, he wouldn't tell Xander that he had made Spike into his mate. Dominating him, then sleeping in the same small space, it was a classic vampire behavior pattern. Spike wasn't a fledgling, so his instincts had demanded mate. And vampires mated for the length of their unlives. Tough luck on him Xander was not only straight, but involved with someone else.