Author's Note: Apologies for being so late in updating. I know where I am going with this story, but writer's block slowed me down temporarily in figuring out how the hell I'm going to get there. Hopefully updates will be a little more frequent now. I know she doesn't read this, but special thanks to Lauren Mills who gave me the idea that will tie the entire story together.

The room was dark as the film ended and the credits started to roll on the television screen. Dawn yawned lazily and snuggled closer into the crook of Richie's arm, not wanting to leave the coziness of their current arrangement to take the tape out of the VCR. She sighed as she thought with slight annoyance that it would be so much easier if Adam just gave in and bought a decent DVD player for the villa. It wasn't as if he didn't have the money for it, and yet he seemed to claim for some unknown reason that VHS was the better format, refusing to give into the new technology and claiming it was merely a phase. Consequently all the rooms in the villa contained VCRs along with a large collection of some pretty old VHS tapes to go with it.

Dawn and Richie had selected one from the pile to watch that night, content just to be with one another. It had been Dawn's turn to choose the film that night and she had gone with Labyrinth, a personal favourite of hers ever since she could remember. Sarah had always been a character she looked up to and when she was little she would spend countless hours attempting to wish the Goblin King would come and take Buffy away. It wasn't until she had gone through Giles' record collection one day that she realized the Goblin King was David Bowie, and that had thrown her whole little fantasy way out of whack. Still, the movie remained a farvourite and since Richie had never seen it, Dawn felt she couldn't continue dating him until that was rectified.

It had been a pretty relaxing last few days, despite that Xander was as taciturn as ever. She had seen Buffy exiting Adam's room the other night and when cornered on it, Buffy had confessed to her that things had indeed changed between her and Adam. Dawn could remember her words to Buffy had been 'about damn time' and was rewarded with a blush of all things from her sister who had almost seemed to glow as she talked. She knew all was not sunshine and roses, for she caught the two of them discussing a death later on that day that Buffy had not been able to prevent, but the fact that Adam was now there in support of Buffy as a partner pleased Dawn greatly. She knew he cared for her sister and wanted to see Buffy happy again with someone who wouldn't hurt her. Adam seemed to be the guy for that, despite that he would live forever. Hey, everyone has problems right?

And she was dealing with that factor when it came to Richie fairly well she thought. It weirded her out to think that in a few short years she might look older than him, but tried not to dwell too much on that aspect. There was a very good chance she might be dead in the next few years as well. Or he might be. They both lived dangerous lives, which made living in the now even more crucial than ever before.

And the now, Dawn had to admit was pretty good. She was certain that she was falling in love with Richie, if she hadn't already. She had never been in love before, so she didn't want to jump to any hasty conclusions on that score, but she had never felt so strongly for someone before. It had never felt so natural, so right that she be with this person. When she touched him, or kissed him, it felt like part of her was complete that had once been hollow. It was an incredible feeling and one that gave her a whole new level of understanding for everything that Buffy had been through.

Love certainly made you do the wacky and Dawn was thrilled that she was finally getting to find out. The fact that Richie was immortal made it a bit more complicated than she would have liked, but she was determine to make it work despite that.

Tonight had been nearly perfect. The movie was good, Richie was warm and solid against her and…snoring. Dawn turned her head, surprised to see that Richie's was lolling against her shoulder, and his chest rose and fell rhythmically. He had fallen asleep and she hadn't even noticed.

"Richie," she whispered, shaking him ever so gently. He woke fairly quickly and rubbed his eyes.

"It's dark," he murmured. "Movie over?"

"You fell asleep," she pouted, realizing that Richie had missed the best part of the movie. The scene where Sarah confronts Jareth and realizes that she has the power in his world was always one that Dawn rewound again and again when she was little. He looked so majestic in his white outfit, and the saddened and yet angry look on his face had always made her shiver. She knew that scene in the film represented Sarah's ability to finally grow up and accept the adult world and after seeing it tonight, Dawn had a better understanding of all that that entailed. This time, rather than feeling sorry for Jareth, she felt sorry for Sarah, for certainly hers was a bittersweet victory.

"I'm sorry Dawn," Richie told her sheepishly. "It's really late though, and I was really tired."

"Don't worry about it," she assured him kissing his nose softly. "We have all the time in the world. We'll just watch it another night."

"We should probably get up and take the tape out." Richie pointed out. However, instead of getting up, he sank down into the couch and wrapped his arm around Dawn, drawing her closer to him and kissing the top of her head.

"How 'bout we just mute it for now?" she suggested hitting the button on the remote and turning to look up at Richie. "Cause there are plenty of fun things we could do in the dark I'm sure."

"Mmmm, like what?" Richie asked, leaning down and giving her a long, lingering kiss that sent tingly feelings all the way down to her toes.

"Well," she murmured as they broke apart. "What you just did there? That was good. I liked that."

"Me too," he whispered going in for another kiss. Just as he did so however, the phone rang, causing Dawn to jump almost completely off the couch and into mid air. Richie seemed rather startled as well, but recovered quickly enough to pick up the phone and answer it.

"Hello?" It could only be a couple of people. Buffy and Methos were out patrolling, so unless something went terribly wrong it wouldn't be them. Xander was absent as per usual which left the possibility either to someone from Paris, or someone from the Watcher's council location in London. Sure enough, he was right as Duncan MacLeod's voice came over the telephone.

"Richie, that you?"

"Yea, it's me Mac," Richie sat up, fully alert now. Mac wouldn't be calling him unless it was something to do with immortal business. Neither of them were really 'phone people' and that was generally its only usage among them. Well that, and whenever the bad guys called Duncan to threaten him. That seemed to happen a lot.

"You might have a problem." Duncan sounded concerned, which did not bode well for Richie.

"What's up?"

"You recall an immortal by the name of David Karkose?" Duncan's voice was curious, but not innocent. He was driving at something, and Richie knew what it was.

"Yea, I do," he said, heart feeling like lead. "I fought him a few years back after…after you took the dark quickening. I was challenging whoever I could and he just happened to be in a bar the same night I was. We were interrupted by police sirens but he vowed to finish it. Why?"

"He's in town." Duncan told him. "Or he was. He came here looking for you Rich. When I told him you weren't here, he said he was going to find you. Apparently he didn't forget about it. I didn't tell him where you were, but it's likely he'll find you at some point. I just thought I would call you and give you the heads up."

"Thanks Mac," Richie replied, suppressing the inward desire to sigh heavily. That point in his life had been a particularly dark one and one he did his level best to forget 23 hours out of the day. It was usually in that one, single hour that the nightmares of those he had killed for no reason would haunt him. David Karkose had not been one of those people and Richie was grateful for that, but it looked as if it was merely a short relief. He was coming for him and Richie would have to be ready to fight him.

"You going to be OK?" MacLeod sounded worried for him, which Richie did not like. Had they fought? Had Mac seen that this guy was a better fighter?

"I'll be fine." He replied with more confidence than he felt. "Besides, we don't know for sure that he'll find me."

"If you need any help just call me." Duncan told him. "I mean it Richie."

"I know you do." He smiled, grateful for his friend's concern. "I'll talk to you later Mac. Good bye."

"Someone wants your head I take it?" Dawn was staring at him, her face a stony and unreadable mask. He had almost forgotten she was in the room during his conversation with MacLeod, but now as he looked at her, he realized that should this guy show up, the challenge would not be as cut and dry as it had in the past. He had Dawn to think of, and that brought on a whole new level of worry.

"I fought him a few years ago," he supplied, wanting her to know both that there were no secrets between them, but also that he was not always the nice guy she thought he was. "I was…angry at the entire world and went around challenging as many immortals as I could. It was a combination of death wish and fury. Not a proud moment in my life, I'll admit. The immortal that wants to kill me…well, I challenged him and we never finished it. Guess he got tired of waiting."

"What will you do if he finds you?" Her voice was small and scared even. She had pulled away from him and had her hands clasped tightly in her lap. He hated that he had made her so tense, but knew that this would never stop. This was his life, and she would either get used to it or…

No, he wouldn't think about the 'or'. He liked her too much to contemplate it.

"I'll fight him Dawn." He told her honestly. "It's against the rules not to."

"The rules?" She echoed incredulously. "You'd get yourself killed over some lame rules?"

"It's how we live," he replied calmly, intently. "You know that."

"Yea, I know, but just because there are rules, doesn't mean you always have to follow them." She sounded childish, but she couldn't help it. She did not want to have Richie fight some immortal who could possibly kill him. Not when she had just found him. Even worse, what if Richie won? Could she still seem as the sweet, gentle, cute red head if she knew he had recently cut off a man's head? "Look at Buffy! How many rules has she broken?"

"That's different." He told her firmly. "I have to fight. It's what we do."

"Richie…"
"I don't like it any better than you do," he cut her off before she could finish. "But I don't have any other choice. That's just the way it is."

"I don't want to talk about this." She told him, turning back to the TV, and un muting the film. She hit rewind without even looking at him. "Let's just watch the movie again."