Pairings: See note in first part (And 3rd part).
Rating: See first part.
Spoilers: Seasons 1-7 of BtVS. All of the Bond movies and Ian Fleming books.
AN-1: Final Part (4) of the Prologue.
AN-2: Advanced Warning: The next few parts will take me a while. It's going to be action heavy and that kind of thing takes me longer to write.
AN-3: Feedback always welcome/desired.
AN-4: The 1st conversation between Faith and Buffy was slightly modified to clarify who knew what and when.
Title: If this is Rome...it must be Tuesday
Quietly closing the apartment door, and trying not to attract the attention of her sister, who was hopefully still sleeping after returning from her trip, Dawn breathed a sigh of relief. She'd left the library earlier than she normally did, hoping to have a chance to spend a little more time with Faith before she had to head back to London. Assuming, contrary to Dawn's expectations, she hadn't been sent packing by Buffy already. For two people whom Dawn thought obviously had so much in common and who should naturally just get along, their ability to annoy each other, often to the point of violence, continued to amaze her.
Dropping her book-bag just inside the hall closet, Dawn noticed that Faith's favorite leather jacket was still there, just barely hanging from the coat hook she'd thrown it on the day before when she'd arrived and dragged a protesting Buffy off to the airport, putting her on a plane to London for some super secret Council activity Giles had refused to discuss and that he had insisted they not tell anyone else, not even Willow, about. She grinned, wiping her forehead in exaggerated relief that Buffy had behaved reasonably for once and not chased her self-proclaimed nemesis away when she'd gotten back to Rome.
Passing the bathroom door on the way to her room, planning to change into something more comfortable, Dawn heard several voices talking over the noisy shower. She stopped to listen, but couldn't understand what they were saying through the thick wooden door. Curious, and determined to exercise her sisterly right to be nosy, she quietly opened the door just a crack; wide enough to see in but not wide enough to be seen herself. Peering into the steam filled room, she could just barely make out two people, someone, who could only be Faith, in the shower and the other, obviously her sister, standing in front of the large mirror, with her back to the door. She couldn't tell what they were talking about, the few words she could pick out over the noise of the shower not making any sense.
Her eyes wide in surprise, Dawn gently shut the bathroom door and continued to her room to change, hoping they hadn't noticed her. Something must have happened since she'd left for work to get them together like that. If she watched them carefully maybe she could figure it out. She knew that Giles and Willow had been working on the two older slayers for months, trying to get them to see past their violent tendencies towards one another, but she hadn't realised they had gotten far enough along to be sharing the bathroom without bloodshed being involved.
Dismissing with a violent shudder the stray, disturbing thought that maybe they were even closer than she'd thought could ever be possible, Dawn wandered back out into the kitchen looking for something to eat, noticing as she passed that the bathroom door was still closed, but no longer hearing the shower running. Grabbing a ripe pear off of the counter and taking a small bite, her attention was caught by a brown envelope that had been placed in the middle of the kitchen table. It seemed to call to her, as if placed there just for her.
Sitting down at the table in a chair facing the window, Dawn reached out for the envelope, and grabbing it opened it, dumping out its contents on the table. To her surprise it contained several dozen pictures of her sister with several other people, including herself, their mother, and Faith. Frowning, she noticed that Buffy seemed very young in some of them and that there were none with herself and their mother.
Staring at the pictures spread out in front of her, Dawn wasn't quite sure what to make of them, especially her obvious absence from so many. Just as she was about to take another bite of her pear, a hand gently touched her shoulder, and she almost jumped out of her skin in shock.
"Sorry!" she heard her sister apologize. Twisting around in her chair, Dawn was surprised to see Buffy already fully dressed. "Did you need anything earlier?" Buffy asked.
"No. I heard voices and was curious. I didn't know that you and Faith were in there... together." Dawn mumbled, feeling slightly guilty at being caught looking at the pictures but not above using any opportunity to distract her sister from what she was doing and fishing for information at the same time. She thought of it as future watcher training.
"Oh! Faith was just taking a shower. We'd just got back from the gym and had things to talk about."
"Okay... if you say so." Dawn winked at her sister, shrugging mentally at her confused look. Noticing that Buffy had apparently not picked up on the innuendo in her comment, Dawn decided not pursue the idea for now. She figured there would be plenty of time to determine what, if anything, was really going on between her sister and Faith later. "What did you want to do for dinner? We don't have enough here to feed two hungry slayers."
"Not a problem." Her sister told her breezily. "Faith and I stopped at that place you like on our way back from the gym and ordered several large pizzas. They should be here in a few minutes."
Dawn watched her sister for a few minutes as she aimlessly puttered around the kitchen, wondering why she hadn't said anything about the pictures she must have seen her looking at.
"Buffy?" When no response was immediately forthcoming, she decided to take a more direct approach. Holding up the pictures she asked "Where did these come from? I mean, who sent them?"
"They came in that envelope that was delivered this morning." Buffy told her. "If you can wait, I would rather explain the where and the who after we eat."
Dawn watched, amused, as her sister and Faith ate like they were afraid the food would escape before it reached their mouths. She'd spent enough time around slayers to not be too surprised but just thinking about how much the two small women were eating was making her stomach hurt in sympathy. "Guys! Wanna slow down? There's plenty left." She pointed out the unopened third box. "You ordered enough for three slayers who just spent the night killing things, not two who just got back from the gym."
Faith grinned and belched, and Buffy pounded her on the back. "Sorry." they both muttered, though Dawn wasn't sure who they were apologizing to or why.
"So... what's the deal with the pictures?" Dawn asked, reaching behind her to grab them from the counter they'd ended up on when the food had arrived. She gave her nervous sister a perceptive look. "Why are they bothering you so much?" When she didn't answer immediately, Dawn looked over at Faith but she just shrugged. Her continued presence hadn't been explained either but Dawn had no desire to tempt fate by asking about it. Usually, Buffy couldn't wait to get rid of Faith whenever she visited them. In Dawn's mind, her sister's unusual behavior towards Faith seemed even odder than the unexplained pictures.
"Do you remember Mom talking about that summer she spent in Paris?" Buffy asked, after a long silence. "Before she married Dad?"
"Yes." Until she'd spent time in a strange foreign city herself, Dawn had thought her mother's tales of her adventures that summer in Paris were romantic and exciting. Now she just wished she'd been that innocent herself when she first saw Rome. She was pretty sure that seeing the city after so much horror had tainted the experience for her.
"Well... she didn't exactly tell us everything about Paris." Buffy mumbled. "She didn't spend the entire time exploring museums and going out with friends."
Dawn wondered why Buffy seemed so nervous, and why she was getting sympathetic looks from the usually emotionally oblivious Faith. If she didn't know better she would think her sister, the pseudo-prude, was trying to think of a way to talk about their mother's sex life without really saying anything. All the usual signs of sisterly avoidance were there. And with that, Dawn thought she'd figured it out. Grinning to herself, she decided to see if she could make her sister squirm.
"Buffy! Mom was an adult at the time. She was allowed to have sex. It was her life. It's not like she'd eaten possessed candy." Knowing how much she liked to poke fun at Buffy's attitudes towards even talking about sex, Dawn wondered why Faith was keeping her opinions to herself at this point.
"It isn't that." Buffy shook her head in denial. "We're all grownups here, even Faith." She patted Faith's knee and Dawn winced at the annoyed look Faith was giving her sister at the patronizing gesture. So much for their apparent friendliness. It seemed to be over already.
"Then what's the problem?" She asked.
"That trip to London yesterday? You know... the one you absolutely can't tell Willow, Xander, or anyone else about until Giles okays it?" Buffy looked at both of them and continued when they both nodded in agreement. "I thought I was going to a meeting to stomp all over some secret government plan to steal some of our newbie slayers for their evil plans. Imagine my surprise when those pictures were shoved in my face almost as soon as we'd gotten there!"
"Why would they take all of these pictures of you? I can see why they might want pictures of Mom, or even Faith and I. We're the good looking ones around here." Dawn giggled at Buffy's frown. She knew she was not actually a vain person, but because Buffy tended to over react to comments about her looks, she couldn't resist taking a poke at her when given an opportunity like this. "And what do the pictures have to do with Mom in Paris?"
"They thought someone might use Mom to blackmail one of their agents." Buffy told her.
"What? Did she sleep with one of them and they thought you were his daughter?" Dawn kidded, wondering why her sister seemed to turn white at her comment.
"Yes. How'd you guess?" Buffy asked faintly. It wasn't the answer Dawn had expected but by now she was numb to the random twists and turns her sister's life seemed to take, so she took it in stride and tried to make her sister laugh about it.
"You know that kind of thing only happens in soaps or really bad Bollywood movies. I think you should ask for a second opinion." Dawn told her with a laugh. "Though it would certainly explain some things, like your tendency to be bossy like Giles. It's the tweed showing through."
"They have proof." Buffy insisted, looking upset at Dawn's less than serious reaction.
Looking back and forth between Faith and Buffy, Dawn couldn't resist one last comment. "Does that make me only your half sister? Knowing that could have saved me a lot of problems in high school. Though I'm not sure it's fair that you aren't related to Hank Summers any more and I still am." She put a fake pout on her face and waited for Buffy to correct her since they both knew, that thanks to some now dead monks, things wouldn't quite work out that way. It wasn't that simple.
"You know that isn't how it is." Buffy admonished her before getting up from the table. Dawn watched her for a few minutes as she nervously started cleaning up the remains of their dinner. She noticed that Faith seemed content just to observe the two of them and wondered what Buffy had told her.
"I'm assuming you actually met him? What's his name?" Dawn asked finally, leaning forward in anticipation.
"His name?" Buffy frowned before reluctantly answering. "James Bond."
Dawn rolled the name around in her head, trying to get a feel for it. "Okay... Buffy Bond." Dawn giggled. "That'll strike fear into the demons and vampires. The ones who don't die laughing." She giggled again before becoming serious again under pressure from her sister's frown. "How did he take it?"
"Having a daughter sprung on him suddenly?" Buffy asked, still frowning at her earlier reaction. "He seemed to be okay with it. He didn't exactly jump for joy but he didn't deny it was possible."
"And finding out that he really has two daughters?" At Buffy's guilty look, Dawn could feel something in the pit of her stomach, almost like how she'd felt when she'd first discovered Buffy wasn't really her sister. "He doesn't know, does he?" She asked faintly, dejectedly slumping back into her seat.
"How was I supposed to tell him something like that?" Buffy asked her, and hearing the hint of stress in her voice, Dawn felt just a twinge of sympathy for her. "He knows I have a younger sister. And he does think there is something suspicious going on. But I don't know if I can trust him with something that important."
"IF you don't want to tell him anything, how'd he get the idea that something is going on?" Dawn muttered. She fidgeted in her chair, poking through the photographs again, gazing wistfully at the ones of her mother. "You'd think they would have pictures of all of us together..." she grumbled. "Stupid monks."
Leaning over the table, Buffy cautiously placed an old photograph in front of her. "This is why."
Dawn stared at it in surprise. "Who are these people? One of them looks sort of like me!" She squeaked.
"They, oh sister mine, are his parents." She picked the picture back up before adding. "Our grandparents."
Disturbed, Dawn abruptly shoved her chair back from the table and flounced out of the kitchen, feeling the need for a good diva moment to clear her head. "I need to take a walk..."
"Dawn! Come back here!" Buffy yelled at her from the kitchen, only her voice following Dawn through the apartment.
She ignored her sister's shrill voice and quickly left the apartment. She couldn't think in Buffy's presence right now. And thinking about what she'd just learned was something she desperately needed to do.
Dawn ignored the soft footsteps coming up behind her for as long as she could. Only a slayer could walk that quietly on the stone streets that Rome seemed to have in over-abundance.
"She loves you, you know." Faith told her.
She stopped and looked at the dark haired slayer now standing to her left. Nodding her head, she agreed. "I do know that. She's proved it so many times over the years. But, some times I think she takes it too far."
"You mean the dying thing?" Faith asked curiously.
"Yes. No." Dawn struggled to put her thoughts into words. "She would have done that for any of the Scoobies, including you." At Faith's denial, Dawn just shook her head. "Yes. And you, no matter how evil you might think you were, would have done the same thing. She's my sister and it really hurt and it messed me up that she would do it, but I know enough about slayers now to know what they'll do to save the world and the people they love." She started walking again, a destination firmly in mind. "I mean how she keeps putting her life on hold for me. She didn't have to stay in Rome." Dawn didn't let Faith say anything, stopping her with a hand over her mouth, in a maneuver she'd picked up from Tara. "Hush! I'm not done. I'm sure she gave you some really good sounding reason, and it might even be true. But whatever it was she doesn't need to be the person to do it."
"Isn't that her decision to make?" Faith asked.
"Yes, but it doesn't make me feel any less guilty. She spent so much time wanting a real life outside of slaying and now she's so afraid of losing me if she does that she won't take the opportunities that come along. I'm sure this is going to be another one of them. Just watch."
Faith shook her head and Dawn could imagine just what she was thinking about the ways Summers women made life more complicated than it should be. They walked for a few more minutes, neither of them saying anything.
"Go ahead. Ask me." She prodded Faith with an elbow, knowing what she was dying to ask.
Faith stopped and perched on the edge of a small fountain they were just passing. "Okay." Looking up at the taller woman standing in front of her, she obliged. "If this Bond is Buffy's father, why is he yours also? And what about that picture?"
"She never told you why Glory was trying to kill me." Dawn stated the obvious. "And the answer to that is the answer to your question."
"Buffy said it was your story to tell, not hers." Faith acknowledged.
"We don't need to discuss the whole Glory history." Dawn told her. "It's the usual Sunnydale apocalypse tale where things aren't really what they seem, the Council interferes, and the good guys keep screwing things up until the end, when they win, beating the odds. Though I think a dead sister isn't really winning, even if the Scoobies defeated the evil Hell goddess."
"Got it." Faith snorted at her summary. "Just the usual. But what's the Bond connection? If he's anything like that picture I can see why your mom went for him ,but I can't see her doing anything like that after she was married."
"No." Dawn agreed. "You're right. That's not how it would have happened. It's simple really. I wasn't always Buffy's sister."
"Could'a fooled me!" Faith announced. "You sure act like sisters."
"Because we are." Dawn laughed at the confused expression on Faith's face. "It's a long story. The short version is that I was something else first. Some mystical object that Glory needed. Some monks did some magic and turned me into Buffy's sister. Memories and everything. And didn't tell anyone. As far as everyone knew I was always there. Willow still hasn't figured out how they did it. Glory managed to find out anyway. If you want all the gory details, Giles has them locked away in some secret safe somewhere."
"Ouch." Faith shivered. "Must have been a shock to find that out."
"Yup. I wasn't too happy." Dawn shrugged nonchalantly. "Sort of freaked out at the time. But I'm okay with it now."
"That must be why Buffy thought you'd be upset at the Bond thing." Faith mused to herself.
"Probably. But I'm really not. It's actually a relief to know why I don't look exactly like Buffy. Willow was curious and had us do a DNA test once. According to that, except for the height, age, and hair thing, we're more identical than most twins."
"So why are we out here now?" Faith asked.
"Just wanted to get away from her guilt fest for a few minutes and think about things." She reached out and briefly ran her hand through the water, watching it run off back into the fountain in the evening light. Shaking off the remaining drops, she pulled Faith to her feet. "I'll talk with her about it later. She'll be okay when she has a chance to get used to the idea. She hates it when things shake up her perfect image of Saint Mom." Dawn sighed but then brightened up. "Let's go do something fun!"
Faith looked at her in amusement. "Shouldn't we tell her?"
"Nah... she'll figure it out. We have this whole 'upset sister' thing we do. Your participation is just an added bonus." Dawn grinned at Faith. "She'll probably get there before we do."