Author's note: hey everyone, i'm off. out of town for a few days so it may be a while before i can update again. hahahaha! i have left you all with a pretty fun cliffie. the baby is arriving so of course i take you FAR FAR away from the action.

so, anyway...

reveiws put me in a happy place. and i know that can be annoying for the reader to read all the time. but then again... if all you want is to read the story then you probably don't even read my quat little Author's notes. love ya, nessie, my lovely BETA.

i dedicate this chapter for everyone who reveiws me. you give me fuzzy feelings.

Chapter XVIII - News for the Angel Gang

At the Hyperion (Los Angeles, USA)

"-yes, mom" Dawn said into the telephone. "I'm fine." she paused. "I'm at the hyperion. Yeah, Cordelia, an old friend of Bu-mine." she paused again. "Yes... yes... no... yes... see you, bye."

Dawn hung up the phone and turned to the group of people who were watching her intently. She recognized a few of them; Cordelia, queen C, someone she had thought completely snotty until recently, now she was a lot friendlier. Wesley, her sister's ex-watcher who got sacked after something went wrong with Faith... and then there was Angel, the souled vampire in all his broody greatness. He was the resident 'friendly vampire' before Spike.

Although Dawn thought Spike was way cooler.

Then there were people she didn't know. It was like a neo Scooby gang. First, there was Fred, (who reminded her a lot of Willow) she was really nice, and kinda bookish. Then there was Gunn. He was cool, sort of like a really tough, manlier Xander. A MUCH tougher manlier Xander. So they had The Giles, The Willow, The Xander. Complete Neo-Scooby gang.

but instead of having a little sister, Angel had a son. Now that was just strange because first of Cordy mentioned that he was born a few months ago but he looked about Dawn's age. Not like she was complaining. He was totally cute.His name was Connor.

Okay... maybe the LA group's chances of coolness were rising.

"She's been really anxious lately," Dawn explained "You know, since..." she paused for a moment still unable to articulate what had happened with her sister. She figured they'd know and understand anyway. "that thing happened."

Her explanation was met with silence.

Awkward silence.

Finally, Dawn nodded.

"Well, since that's over, I guess I should be-"

"What are you doing here, Dawn?" Angel cut her off.

The rest of his team looked relieved, as if they had been meaning to ask the same question.

Dawn fidgeted for a second. Try as she might to get over it, it still hurt to talk about it. And she couldn't it explain very well, after all, she herself wasn't so sure what they were doing here.

"Just not being in Sunnydale." she replied looking down. "I dunno, it seems so undomfotable there."

Angel nodded.

"So-yeah," she said. "Anyway, I really should go, my mom and I are staying in a motel outside town."

Angel nodded, but Cordelia called after Dawn.

"Wait, what about Buffy?" she asked. "You said you and your mom are staying here... is she doing some slayer thing? Does she need help?"

Angel was startled, he hadn't thought of that.

Dawn's face registered shock.

"You mean you don't know?" she asked. "You're a detective agency that specializes on demon activity and you don't know what happened to my sister who is like, the demon version of the nightmare on elm street?"

There was a silence.

"No?" Fred piped up.

Dawn turned to look at her incredulously.

"She's gone."

"What?" Cordelia cried.

"Gone" Dawn repeated.

Angel stared at her. He seemed to have lost all his ability to speak.

Fred turned to Gunn,

"Isn't Bu-"

Gunn nodded pressing his finger to his mouth. He had a feeling even saying the word 'Buffy' would bring on the badness.

Connor looked at Fred questioningly. She signaled that she would inform him about it later. Connor nodded in understanding.

"How can she be gone? I mean-" Cordelia wanted to know.

"How?" was all Angel was able to mutter.

"-slayers don't just disappear... do they?"

"But surely-" Wesley spoke.

"I said she's gone, okay?" Dawn erupted pushing past all the grown ups that surrounded her. She was starting to get suffocated in there, "what part of that do you not understand?" she turned to the three people she had only just met. "It was nice to meet you." she said. "But I have to go."

The tears that were glistening in her eyes were obvious.

Angel though of going after her, after all the streets of LA were just as dangerous as the streets of Sunnydale. But he realized that he was not the person to go. He would just pressure her more, so instead he looked imploringly at Cordy.

The former Ice queen of Sunnydale High sighed and was about to go after her when Connor held her back.

"You're just going to remind her of her sister." he said. "I'll go after her."