A/N: I'm on a roll! I had a lot of fun writing this one. And also...I've been a little disappointed by the small number of reviews lately. I see the number of people who view the chapter, and when only 2 review, it's a little disheartening. So please, if you would just take a minute of your time and let me know what you think, it would mean the world to me.

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Chapter 20: A Scare and a Surprise

"Are you ready?" Connor asked his girlfriend as they stood outside the door of his new apartment that Saturday.

Her expression was tense, as if she was half-afraid of what she might find inside. "As I'll ever be," she said with a weak smile.

He laughed as he turned the key in the lock and opened the door. "It's really not that bad."

She paused on the threshold, noting that no strange or pungent odors emerged when he opened the door. Definitely a good sign. She had to admit, after seeing the building, which could definitely use a repair or ten, she had been about ready to run back in the other direction. But she kept reminding herself that this was what Connor could afford, and that at least it was only a short walk away from her place. She tentatively stepped inside all the way, scanning the room.

And 'room' was the proper word. The apartment was a studio, small but not cramped. It was a little dark, and she saw that the one window seemed to face an alley and wasn't getting much natural light. But other than that...it really wasn't bad. The walls had a semi-fresh coat of white paint, not original or particularly eye-catching, but decent. A bed was pushed against one wall, and a futon-style couch and an end table sat in the middle of the room. There was a wood bureau next to the bed, and in one corner there was a small refrigerator with a microwave resting on top. A small table and two chairs stood nearby. There was a floor lamp next to the bed, and off in the far corner a door led to what she assumed what the bathroom.

"It's not bad," she said honestly after giving the place a thorough once-over. "I mean, you could really benefit from a little HGTV love, and some more light would be nice, but it's not bad."

"I know it's not as nice as the one back in Sunnydale," he commented. "But that was kind of a rare stroke of luck. And when I get my next paycheck I'm going to get some more stuff for the place."

"It seems clean," she said optimistically, walking around slowly.

"I wouldn't have moved in if it wasn't. I mean, I want this to be a place you feel comfortable," he pointed out.

She glanced over her shoulder and smiled at him. "It's nice, Connor. Really. And with a few more touches, it'll be even better."

He looked relieved. "I'm so glad you're okay with it." He moved to give her a kiss.

She wrapped her arms around his neck. "You know, this is only temporary. I mean, in the spring I'll graduate, and then we can get a place together."

"What about Buffy?" he asked pointedly.

Dawn shrugged uncomfortably. "I don't know. I mean, I would feel guilty about leaving her by herself. But maybe by then she'll have found someone and she won't be alone, and then we'll be free to be together all the time."

He kissed her again. "Everything's gonna work out. You'll see."

She stepped away from him, sitting down on the bed, but not before discreetly checking for dust and coming up negative. "So...did you call Angel yet?"

He stiffened slightly. Ever since Buffy had told him that his father wanted to speak with him, he had dreaded actually making the phone call. But at Dawn's insistence, he finally had the night before. "Yeah, I did. He just wanted to check up on me, since Buffy told him I'm living on my own. Of course, he wanted to send money, but I told him no."

"He just wants to help you, Connor," Dawn said patiently. "And since he can't be with you, he's trying to just help you in any way that he can."

"I know. I just don't need anymore of his charity, you know? Back in Sunnydale, it was okay, I had no clue what I was doing, no job. But now things are different." He shrugged. "I'm more used to things. And besides...like you said, in the spring you'll graduate and I want to be able to support you. Through whatever comes next."

She tilted her head thoughtfully. "That's one of the sweetest things you've ever said to me."

"Well, it's true. I want to be someone you can depend on, and I can't be that person if I'm dependent on someone." He sat down next to her.

She swiftly moved so she was sitting on his lap, her legs dangling off to the side. "I love you."

"I love you." He kissed her, a little more passionate and lengthy this time before they fell back onto the bed, giggling as the bed creaked loudly.

> > > > >

One week later

It was another bright Saturday morning as Dawn sat on the couch, crouched over her homework. She finished a sentence on an essay and paused, flipping open her assignment book, groaning at the number of assignments she had due in the coming weeks. "I guess it can't hurt to organize a little," she said to herself as she headed for the bedroom. Buffy was working the early shift today, and Faith had already taken off on one of her many outings. Connor was at work, putting in some extra hours in order to save more money, so that left her alone, using the time to get ahead on her schoolwork.

She rummaged in her drawer until she found her weekly planner/address book. Humming as she walked back to the couch, she opened to today's date, folding down the page as she prepared to write in all of the due dates. As she started to turn ahead to next week, something- or rather, a lack of something- caught her eye. She quickly flipped back one week...then two...three...four...five...six weeks. Six weeks of blank pages with nothing written in. "That can't be right," she muttered, her homework temporarily forgotten. She scanned back through the pages again. It was after the third time that it hit her.

She swore loudly. The planner slipped from her hands, landing on the floor with a thud.

For a minute she just sat there, silent and still. No. It must just be a mistake, with everything that's been going on you just forgot to write it down, she told herself. She went back through her memory, closing her eyes hard in order to think. Nothing.

"No, no no no no, this is not happening," she groaned, leaning back against the couch cushions. She started to feel dizzy, so she leaned forward until the sensation passed, trying to breathe normally.

"Okay Dawn, think," she instructed herself. But her mind kept coming back to one thing.

Was it possible?

Well, of course it was possible. She knew as well as the next girl that the only foolproof method of prevention was abstinence, and that ship had sailed a long time ago. But that didn't mean it was likely. They had always been careful, she couldn't remember a single time when they hadn't been.

As thoughts flooded her mind, the panic started to sink in. She struggled to keep her cool, standing and starting to pace around the living room.

She needed someone. She quickly scanned through the mental list of people that she trusted and that were within a ten mile radius. It only took her a few seconds before she practically dove for the phone, dialing the now-familiar number with shaking hands. A man answered on the third ring.

"H-hello, is Amelia there?" she managed to say.

"Yes, just a moment," the man who she assumed to be her friend's father replied. About ten seconds passed before her friend's voice came over the line.

"Hello?"

Dawn had never been so happy to hear someone's voice in her life. "Amelia. It's me. I need you, it's an emergency. Can you come over right away?"

For a second she was silent, probably shocked at Dawn's urgency. "Um, of course. I'll get a cab right now. Is everything okay?"

"I don't know," Dawn said honestly. "Just please...hurry."

"I'm on my way." Without another word, she hung up the phone. Dawn did the same, taking a few deep breaths before glancing at the clock. It would take Amelia at least twenty minutes to call a cab and get there from across town. That gave her enough time to do what she knew she couldn't put off. She moved robotically to her bedroom, gathering her purse and key and heading out the door.

> > > > >

She had been home for about 3 minutes when the knock on the door came. Since she had been sitting on one of the kitchen stools waiting, Amelia's hand was still poised to knock when she swung the door open. Without a word she reached out and gently pulled her friend inside, closing and locking the door behind her. "Dawn, what the hell is going on? You're really freaking me out," Amelia said, her eyes wide and frightened as she stared at her.

Dawn thought briefly about how that was the first time she had heard her friend swear since meeting her. "I'm sorry, I'm just really scared and I didn't have anyone else to call."

Amelia reached out and touched her arm. "It's okay, just please tell me what's the matter."

"I think I might be pregnant," she blurted.

Her friend's eyes grew even wider, and her skin seemed to grow three shades paler. "What?" she stammered. "I mean, okay, start from the beginning."

Dawn started to pace again. "I don't know! I just got out my planner, I was going to write down some assignments, but then I noticed that I didn't have any of the little stars I usually make when I get my period. And it's been almost six weeks. Six weeks."

"So that means you're..." she struggled to do the math.

"Eleven days late," she said, having counted at least half a dozen times.

Amelia took a deep breath. "Okay. The important thing is to stay calm. You've been really stressed out lately Dawn, with everything that happened, that could be why. It makes your hormones get all out of whack, it's pretty common."

"Sure, it could be, but it could also be that I'm pregnant!" Dawn hissed wildly. "I mean, I just don't understand. We always use protection, Amelia! Even when we jumped each other and did it right in this living room, we still took a second to be safe!"

Amelia blinked. "Okay, I know I'm your friend, but I think that was a little too much information. But Dawn, you know as well as I do that...things can go wrong. It's not a hundred percent."

"I know, I'm not stupid," she snapped, instantly regretting it. "I'm sorry. I'm just..."

"I know. It's okay. Look, we're probably just getting worked up over nothing. You need to take a test, we can't panic until we know something for sure," Amelia said rationally, her voice shaking slightly.

Dawn slowly held up the paper bag on the counter. "I already got one. But I was just...I didn't want to be alone when I did it."

Her friend smiled gently, squeezing her hand. "Go. I'm right here." Dawn nodded slowly before turning and heading for the bathroom, moving slowly and stiffly as if she was walking the plank. "And Dawn?" She turned around. "Just know that whatever happens, I'm here for you."

She couldn't help but smile at that. "Thanks. For rushing over here, for not yelling at me, for everything."

"What are friends for? Now go," she urged. Dawn shut herself inside the bathroom as Amelia settled in to wait.

Dawn emerged a few minutes later, her face grim. "We have to wait five minutes," she explained, going to take a seat next to her friend on the couch. Amelia immediately took her hand.

"I can't believe this is happening," Dawn said flatly. "Everything was so...perfect." She snorted. "What's that saying, if something seems like it's too good to be true, it usually is?"

"Don't say that. We both know that's not true," Amelia reasoned, running her free hand through her dark blonde hair and straightening the glasses on her nose.

"You know what he told me last week?" Dawn asked. "He told me that he wanted to be someone I could depend on. He talked about getting our own place after graduation." She shook her head. "But now...all of that could change."

"Dawn, I've heard enough about Connor to know that he would never let you go through this alone. If it is...if you are..." She stumbled on her words. "I'm sure he would support you."

"Sure, he would. But that doesn't mean he'd like it. And Buffy," Dawn said in horror. "Buffy's going to kill me. She was against this from the beginning, me and Connor sleeping together, she would never forgive me."

"We don't know anything yet. I really think we should both hold off on panicking or jumping to conclusions until we see the results," Amelia insisted.

"How much longer?" Dawn said after a moment.

Amelia glanced at her watch. "Two more minutes."

Dawn made a loud, exasperated noise, causing the other girl to startle. "Why has these past three minutes felt like three hours?" She suddenly whirled to face her friend. "Do you think I'm pregnant?"

Amelia was visibly taken aback by the question. "Um, I don't know. Do you...do you have any symptoms? Like nausea, or morning sickness? Have you been feeling extra tired lately?"

"No," Dawn admitted. "But not all women get symptoms."

"That's true." Amelia was at a loss for what to say next.

Dawn suddenly leapt off the couch and began pacing again. "Who the hell am I kidding? I can't have a baby! Amelia, I'm seventeen years old! I can barely use the microwave! All four of my Giga-Pets died within hours of me getting them! And back in Sunnydale, I stepped on a crossbow and ending up killing a cat! And it wasn't even my pet! Look at me, I can't be a mother! What the hell was I thinking? And Connor, I love him, but the boy needs to be reminded to make his bed in the morning! And where would we get the money to support a baby? I can't work if I'm going to stay in school, and Connor would have to ask his dad for money, and he hates that. And what about enjoying our youth? We can't exactly go out for pizza on a Friday night if there's a baby to take care of!" She was on a roll now, her face growing more and more desperate as her voice grew louder. "What the hell am I going to do? I'm not ready for this!" She was so absorbed in ranting and wearing a groove in the floor that she didn't even notice when Amelia slipped across the room and out of sight. "Having a baby isn't like planning a vacation. You need to be mature, you need to be able to think things through, they need to be fed, and changed, and clothed, and burped, and I don't even know if I've held a baby before! I would have no idea what to do!" Amelia appeared in front of her again, an unreadable expression on her face.

"I mean seriously, maybe Buffy was right! I should have never had sex with Connor! Look at me now! I'm going to have stretch marks before I can VOTE!"

"Dawn..."

"Connor's not even going to want to look at me anymore, this is going to change everything, I mean I always thought we would get married and have children but that was like, long-term!"

"Dawn-"

"How could I have been so stupid? I mean, I went to health class, I watched the Miracle of Life, the stupid videos on teen pregnancy, but I always thought 'of course that will never happen to me'-"

"DAWN!" Amelia finally yelled at the top of her lungs.

"WHAT?" Dawn cried, equally loud, her eyes wide and crazed.

Her friend simply held up the little white stick. "You're not pregnant."

For a second Dawn was certain she stopped breathing. "What?"

"I said, you're not pregnant," Amelia said, a small smile itching at the corners of her lips.

For a second Dawn just stood there, unable to think or move or do anything. "I'm not pregnant," she finally repeated, the words starting to register in her brain.

The two girls threw their arms around each other, relieved beyond belief that their scare was over. "Oh thank God," Dawn whispered. They pulled apart, and she remembered her little rant from a minute earlier, feeling sheepish. "Oh wow. I'm sorry. I guess I kind of...freaked out." She laughed suddenly. "Seems pretty stupid now." She clapped a hand to her mouth. "Would it be too much for you to forget you ever saw that?"

Amelia bit her lip to stop from giggling. "Not at all. But can I just ask one question, before we pretend the past five minutes never happened?" She paused. "What was that about killing a cat with a crossbow?"

Dawn froze for a second before covering. "Oh, that didn't actually happen...it was just this dream I had once. Wow, I really didn't know what I was saying!" She laughed nervously.

Thankfully, Amelia seemed to buy the pathetic lie. "Okay. So I promise to never speak of your little outburst again."

"Thank you," Dawn said sincerely. "I don't know what I would have done without you."

"Someday you'll pay me back," Amelia said wisely. She held up the stick that she was still holding. "Garbage, or too risky?"

"Too risky. Here." She quickly gathered the box and paper bag from the store and stuffed the stick in. "I'll throw it away outside." She crumpled the bag in her hand, shaking her head slowly. "Wow. That was...I'm glad that's over."

"Me too," Amelia agreed heartily. She paused, as if debating whether or not to say something. "Are you going to tell Connor?"

Dawn had to think about that for a second. "I don't know," she finally admitted, exhaling loudly. "I mean, I don't want to freak him out or make things weird, but we also promised that we would never keep secrets, especially after everything that happened. I guess we'll just have to see." She glanced around the room, her eyes temporarily landing on her abandoned homework. As focused as she had been merely an hour ago, she couldn't imagine actually getting anything done now. "Hey, what do you say we get out of here? I think I could use some air, just to calm down and try to forget about that," Dawn said.

Amelia shrugged. "Sure. I didn't know what was up when you called so I just told my dad I'd be back sometime tonight."

"Connor's working today, but I'll probably go see him tonight..." Her eyes lit up as an idea came to her. "Ooh, I know exactly what we can do! Come on." She headed for the door, grabbing her purse on the way, the paper bag still in her hand. Amelia followed after her, a little bewildered, but enthusiastic nonetheless. Dawn held open the door for her friend and then locked it from outside. "So, what do you know about interior decorating?" she asked as they headed down the hall.

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Late that afternoon Connor stood in the hallway of his new apartment building, balancing a bag of groceries he had picked up under one arm while he fumbled for his key. He turned it in the lock and stepped inside. When he looked up, he almost dropped the bag in shock when he saw that he wasn't alone. Dawn was standing in the middle of the room, beaming, and another girl with blonde hair and glasses stood off to the side. But that wasn't all.

The formerly drab apartment had been transformed into something...almost attractive. It was no longer so dark, there were several more lamps spread around that brightened the room right up. Long blue curtains hung on the windows, and were tied back to the walls. The furniture had been rearranged. The bed was now on the wall closer to the window, and the bureau was in the corner. The end table from the "living room" now sat next to the bed, and housed a framed photograph that he couldn't quite make out with the distance. The microwave was now on a new little shelving unit, with the fridge on the bottom and plenty of empty space for groceries and whatnot. A sharp blue tablecloth covered the table, which had been pulled out further from the wall. In the center, the futon couch had some bright throw pillows on it, and underneath there was an attractive black and blue throw rug. The walls were also no longer so bare. A few small but tasteful art prints were spread out on the walls, and a clock hung above the microwave. It no longer looked bare and empty, but almost...homey.

"So? What do you think?" Dawn asked excitedly, clasping her hands together.

He slowly walked to the table and set the bag of groceries down. "Wow. It's just...how did you do all of this?" He ran his fingers over the tablecloth before going over to examine his new shelves.

"It actually didn't take much. Just a few of the right touches. We actually got a lot of it at yard sales. Amelia really knows her way around Rome," Dawn said, flashing a grin at the other girl. "Oh! And that reminds me, Connor, this is my friend Amelia. Amelia, this is Connor."

Connor walked over to the other girl, shaking her hand. "It's great to meet you. Dawn talks about you all the time."

"No, actually she talks about you all the time," Amelia corrected him with a laugh.

He smiled as he continued to look around. "Wow. I can't believe you did all of this."

"Hey, I wanted to do something nice for you, and we both know this place could use a little TLC," Dawn pointed out cheerfully, clearly pleased with herself.

He picked up the framed photo on the bedside table. It was a picture of the two of them that Dawn had taken herself, so therefore it was pretty closeup. But it really was a good picture. Dawn was grinning right at the camera as she took the picture, but he had been too busy looking at her smile to even notice. So the end result had been him staring at her, captivated as she looked right into the camera lens. He set it down gently. "I love it. Really." He came up behind Dawn and wrapped his arms around her waist, kissing her cheek. "And I love you."

Amelia cleared her throat awkwardly. "I should probably go," she said, a little awkwardly. "It's getting late, my dad must be wondering where I am by now." She picked up her purse from the floor.

"Okay. You're gonna call a cab?" Dawn asked, moving out of Connor's embrace to walk to her friend.

Amelia nodded. "Yeah, I'm good. Connor, it was great to meet you," she said.

"You too. And thank you, thanks for helping Dawn with all of this, and just for being a good friend to her," he added. He felt good knowing that Dawn had this nice girl that she could count on when he wasn't around.

"Yes. Thank you," Dawn said meaningfully, her expression somber as she grasped her friend's hands before pulling her into a quick hug. Amelia smiled at her as something unspoken passed between them.

"Good night. I'll call you tomorrow, Dawn," she said as she headed for the door. They both called goodbye as she let herself out.

"She seems nice," Connor commented.

"She really is. I'm so glad I found her," Dawn said. She thought to herself that she didn't know how she would have survived today without Amelia, and knew that she owed her big time. But the best part was, the other girl wouldn't expect anything in return. That was what true friendship was.

"Is something wrong? You looked like you were a million miles away just now," Connor pointed out, rubbing her shoulders.

She thought for a second. "No. Actually, everything's perfect." She leaned back against him and let him wrap his arms around her as she smiled to herself.

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TBC!

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