Buffy looked around at her friends and took a deep breath. "There's something that you need to know… about Dawn…"

x

Xander was the first to speak after Buffy finished telling them. "So, these monk dudes just made a whole person?"

"From my blood."

"Can they even do that?" Willow asked skeptically.

Giles shrugged. "Apparently they can, since they, um, did."

"And they just erased all our memories and rewrote them?" Xander asked. "Like an Etch-a-Sketch?"

"A great big magic Etch-a-Sketch," Willow said, impressed.

"Who gave them the okay to do that?"

"They were trying to save the world," Buffy replied.

"Can they take it back?" Anya asked.

"They're all dead."

"Damn," Xander breathed. He turned to Buffy, who was frowning at him. "Not saying I want Dawn to get gone, I just don't like my mind being messed with."

Anya nodded in agreement. "Makes me feel icky."

"I know. But there's nothing we can do. We have to protect her now."

xxx

"Magic shop, eh? All number of beasties between here and there," Spike said thoughtfully. Dawn was standing before him, purportedly on her way to go a-stealing, but she was starting to look nervous. "Bet they'd really go for a little red riding hood like you. Bet that wouldn't sit too well with big sister," Spike continued.

"I can take care of myself," Dawn insisted. Then she added, "You wanna come steal stuff?"

"Yeah, all right," Spike answered. They started walking. "How's Buffy doing these days anyway? Haven't seen her for a while."

Dawn looked sideways at him. He still had the marks from the last time Buffy paid him a visit. "Yeah, right, and you got those bruises how? Falling down the stairs?"

"As a matter of fact, uh, yeah. But I was pushed. By these really big Kraigernach demons. A whole pack of them, to whom I owe money." Spike said unconvincingly. "Stupid gits. Got more muscle than patience."

Dawn rolled her eyes. "Right. You're a sucker for pain, Spike."

"So how is she?"

Dawn sighed. "I would say weird, but weird's normal for her now. So, normal."

"Doesn't happen to be on the outs with her old man, does she?" Spike asked casually.

"Giles?" Dawn rolled her eyes again. "I don't even know what's up with those two anymore. I think they're avoiding each other. Again."

"Oh. Well, isn't that interesting," Spike said, trying not to appear too heartened. "You know, to someone who might actually care. Who isn't me. So, what have you got it in mind to steal?"

xxx

"That was an incredibly dangerous spell for an adept at your level," Giles said sternly to Willow.

"Yep," Willow said, still in a daze. "Won't be trying that one again soon."

Buffy was just glad that it had worked and that Glory was gone, for the moment. She hoped Willow's teleportation spell had sent her far away. Buffy turned urgently to Dawn.

"Are you okay? Did she hurt you?"

"Why do you care?"

"Because I love you. You're my –" Buffy stopped herself. Her face went blank. "Uh, you're my sister."

Dawn glared at her, tears gathering in her eyes. "Yeah, right. You don't even believe that. I'm not anything, am I?" Her voice was shaking.

"No you are," Buffy said earnestly.

Dawn just shook her head. She quickly got to her feet and ran to the door.

"Dawn! Wait!" Buffy got up and grabbed a hold of her.

"Let go of me! I'm not your sister." Dawn struggled uselessly against her.

The others watched wide-eyed, not knowing what to do.

"Guys, get out of here!" Buffy ordered them.

"Are you sure…?" Xander asked.

"Yes! Just go!"

"I'm not your sister!" Dawn cried, though she had stopped struggling now.

Buffy let go of her and stood in front of the door after the last of her friends had gone. "No, you aren't," she said.

Dawn looked at her, shocked despite her insistence of the same.

"But you're still mine. Dawn…"

"What am I?"

Buffy held on to her and spoke calmly. "Just, promise me you'll calm down, and I'll tell you, okay?"

"You'll tell me the truth?"

"If you promise not to freak out."

Dawn composed herself somewhat and tried to look stoic. "I promise."

Buffy nodded. She sank to the floor and Dawn sat down in front of her, watching her expectantly. "Okay." Buffy took a deep breath and looked up at the ceiling like she was praying for strength or guidance. She started carefully. "Um, remember last year, I was crying a lot, and really depressed?"

"I wasn't alive last year," Dawn said bitterly.

"But you remember, right?" Dawn nodded and Buffy continued, "I was like that because…" She lowered her eyes and her voice dropped to a whisper. "No one else knows this, but I got pregnant."

Dawn gaped in shock.

Buffy didn't notice. She didn't raise her eyes. She kept staring at the same spot on the floor, with the same distant look. "It was the scariest thing that ever happened to me. I felt so alone. I thought everyone would judge me, and mom would kick me out, and Riley would leave me, and I wouldn't be able to finish college, and that after all that, I'd bring a baby into the world and not even be able to take care of it, because of the slaying, and it would end up dead. I freaked out, right there in the doctor's office. She was nice about it. She calmed me down, and told me what to do, and where to go. I did what she said, and went straight from there to, um…" Buffy bowed her head. "I-I got an abortion."

Dawn was looking at Buffy like she never really knew her before.

"It was really fast, and then I went straight back to school. No one even guessed that anything was different. I felt like killing myself, I was so guilty, but no one guessed." There were tears in her voice. "Something, uh, funny happened during the, um, operation though. I thought I just blacked out and had a weird dream, but when I found the monk, he told me that they had been watching me, trying to figure out a way to bring me the key. And when I… well, they took the baby, and kept her alive, and they put the key in her and made her grow up into you." Buffy looked up at Dawn, her eyes swimming in tears.

Dawn appeared dazed. "I'm your daughter?"

"Yeah." Buffy nodded and smiled weakly. "Weird, huh? But hey, you're a hundred percent real. Just sped up."

Dawn's expression turned to one of horror. "You killed me."

Buffy looked like she was putting all of her strength into not breaking down into tears. When she spoke it was more like she was pleading with Dawn. "I know. And I hated myself. I would have been miserable for the rest of my life. I was just so frightened, and I panicked…"

"Why?" Dawn asked coldly, her voice shaking and sardonic. "Not like Riley wouldn't've done the right by you. I bet he even would have married you."

"No, I couldn't've…"

"What?" Dawn scoffed. "Burdened him with me?"

Buffy shook her head. "No. No, Riley and me, we weren't even…" She trailed off.

Dawn looked at her suspiciously. "Then whose am I?"

Buffy took another deep breath. "Giles'."

Dawn's mouth dropped open again and she looked at Buffy with eyebrows halfway up her forehead. "Oh."

"It was… complicated. I had no clue how he'd react. And what mom and my friends would say if they knew. I was sure they'd think there was something wrong with me, and that mom would go hairy on him and I'd lose him…"

"I told her you had a crush on him." Dawn laughed ironically. She stopped abruptly as the weirdness of it all sunk in.

"Can you forgive me?"

Dawn was silent for a moment. "I have to think about it."

Buffy bit her lip and nodded. Then they got up off the floor and left the room together.

Giles drove them home, and Dawn couldn't help watching him, and the way he and Buffy interacted, very closely. It gave her a funny feeling, seeing him open the car door for Buffy, like he always did, and give her his handkerchief to dry her tears with, knowing there was so much more behind it, which he didn't even know about.

At one point he noticed her staring at him in the rearview mirror. "Are you quite all right, Dawn?" he asked suspiciously.

She smiled a little and nodded. "Yeah…" She stopped herself from adding "dad," and only imagined what it would be like to call him that. Then she shook her head as if to clear it of such thoughts, because they were just too weird right now.

After they got home and Joyce had hugged her and exclaimed how worried she had been, Dawn went to Buffy's room and sat down with her on her bed.

"So, I've thought about it," she started.

Buffy was watching her very anxiously.

"I've thought about it, and I don't think I'm all that mad at you."

Buffy stared like she couldn't believe it.

Dawn continued, "I think that if it were me, I probably would have done the same thing. So I can't really be mad at you. And it is nice to know that I'm real. A sped up kid makes a lot more sense than a kid made from scratch. Your cover story really is full of holes." She smiled weakly.

The next moment she was wrapped tight in a Buffy hug and she couldn't breathe.

"Erm, Buffy, slayer strength and hugs, don't make for goodness," she choked out.

Buffy pulled back from her. "Sorry," she said through her tears. She was crying and smiling and laughing at once.

Dawn wished she could be as happy as Buffy, but she just felt kind of weird. She told her so. "I mean, you still feel like my sister, and mom like my mom, and dad like my dad..."

"But hey, your actual dad didn't run off."

"Yeah." Dawn nodded, still getting used to the idea of Giles being her father. "He's old, but I guess you at least have better taste than mom… I mean…" She looked questioningly at Buffy. "You don't want me to call you mom, do you?"

Buffy laughed a little and shook her head. "No." Then she seemed to actually think about it a bit and added, "Maybe. Not around mom, for sure. Or in public, 'cause that would get weird looks. But once in a while, if you want to..."

"Okay." Dawn nodded uncertainly. "Not yet though. I still have to get used to it."

Buffy nodded in agreement and continued to look at Dawn smilingly.

"When are you going to tell Giles?"

Buffy's face fell. "I wasn't planning to."

"Why not? Don't you think he should know?"

"What if he can't forgive me?"

Dawn gave her a look that was half exasperated, half comforting. "You're his Buffy, Buffy. Of course he will. And hey, if I can forgive you, he sure as hell can."

Buffy still looked uncertain.

"I want him to know, and you owe me," Dawn said.

"You're going to hold that over me forever, aren't you?"

Dawn nodded. "Yep."

Buffy sighed. "Okay. I'll tell him tomorrow."