Title: Miss Memory: Birthdays, and Life

Summary: In this chapter, there is a short update of the 2nd season. Buffy tells Dawn about her night.

Timeline: S2

Feedback: Please. I need my reason for writing- your ideas and me knowing my work is read.

Prologue: Pt.4 Noted Time

/ "I love you, I try not to. But I can't stop." "Me, me too."/

/ "Willow says 'Kick his ass.'"/

/ "No weapons… no friends… no watcher… No hope. Take all that away, and what's left?" Sword moves, and she catches it. "Me." /

Dawn awoke to the feeling of someone shaking her shoulders. At first she was annoyed, but then the night before came back to her.

Buffy had come in with a vampire that she had told Dawn to stay away from. Then they had told their mom about it and Joyce had somewhat snapped.

She tried to explain quickly, and then had to do something.

Then her mom's words rang through her mind. /"If you walk out that door don't even THINK about coming back."/ And Buffy had walked out.

Dawn didn't blame her though, knowing that whatever Buffy had to do was really end-of-the-world important.

Buffy hadn't told Dawn of a Slayer's destiny when the blonde first became the Slayer, but Dawn had always helped Buffy through her hard times. Because of their even newer bond due to being Slayers (with secrets) each trusted the other more than just about anyone else.

Ever since Buffy's seventeenth birthday, the night the blonde Slayer had come home with a crying-keening sound, Dawn knew that she never, ever wanted to ever hear such a sad sound again; but it is well-known that Slayers rarely get anything they want. Though the cry on her own birthday had been freaky, it was the same sound later that had told her something bad was going to happen. If it wasn't already going on.

She groggily opened her eyes, and instantly sobered from her dreams when she saw her sister, blonde hair straight and green eyes blank, deadened.

"Buffy." She said with relief.

Then she saw the bag. "What's going on?"

Buffy shrugged her shoulders, and then bent down to her sister, and cuddled with her for a few moments. Dawn Marie loved this but the fear in her own heart hastened her heartbeat. She questioned her sister quietly but got shut up.

"Dawn, I need to tell you this:

"I made love with Angel on the night of my birthday, and he lost his soul because of this stupid gypsy curse that they never told him about. So he became Angelus again. He sent Drusilla over, and she killed Kendra. The others got hurt, and he tortured Giles to see how he could open this portal to destroy the world. And he finally tricked him into giving him the information." Dawn was goggling at all of the information. And was piecing it together: why she had heard Buffy cry every night, and she had been so closed off. "So I went in and Xander met me half way, and we started on. He said that Willow said to "Kick His Ass." So we went in and, and Xander got Giles out and I staked some vampires and got into a really close fight with Angelus. Xander left with Giles to the hospital. And I was about to kill him, when something went through me, and then through Angel, and I know, I knew what had happened- Willow returned his soul and Xander didn't tell me, and then the portal opened behind him, and I kissed him and said I love him and then I had to stick the sword through his gut and then he went into the portal and it disappeared and so did my Angel, and Xander was gone with Giles and I was all alone and I wished I didn't do it but I had to so that my baby would be fine and that's the only reason and I still cant believe I did it and why didn't Xander tell me and..."

She quit talking and Dawn saw the look in her eyes that meant she was deep in thought or elsewhere.

Within a few minutes, Buffy came back and kissed Dawn on the head. "Don't tell Mommy 'kay?" Dawn nodded.

Buffy stood warily and Dawn found herself missing her sister's presence already.

Buffy smiled down at her sister and picked her bag up. Despite the fact that they practically weighed the same, the older slayer held her like she was a small doll.

"Buffy, where will you go?" She asked curiously.

Buffy shrugged her shoulders. She didn't know. She hadn't really thought about it. "When are you coming back?"

Buffy stopped for a second, and then looked directly at her sister. She bent down and kissed Dawn's head in a way that big sisters did in fairy tales, and Buffy always did to Dawn when they were alone.

When she stood up, she simply shrugged again and looked at her.

"I'll be back someday. Right now, I just gotta get away."

And with that, nothing but a breeze was left in her place. Buffy was out of the room, and Dawn was left staring at the spot where Buffy last stood in tears and cold.

As she went back to sleep, she was stuck with the broken, yet hopeful look in her sister's eyes. Even with the little hope there, Dawn hoped to see those eyes soon, but not the eyes of a broken person such as Buffy.

The nightmares of the broken eyes alone were haunting.

It wasn't 'till after Buffy had fled, that Dawn had registered all of her sister's words.

She smiled slightly in her head. She was going to be an aunt.

After that knowledge of what Xander had done passed through her head, her crush was, well, crushed.

No more liking Xander for this Summers slayer.

TBC obviously. OMG, this is so boring to even me. I would rewrite the whole thing if I could but I know it would cause me to lose interest. I'm sorry for those who like Xander; I don't. I'm sorry for all of those who don't like Buffy/Angel, Dawn and the B/A kids. I do. I'm sorry for all those who love Joyce, because I could do without her.

Or maybe I'm not sorry at all.