Chapter 8. Business Affairs.
Meanwhile in Buffy's room, Buffy was laying comfortably on her bed, while Dean was sitting in a chair far away from the bed. Dean kept whining about the sleeping conditions and Buffy kept getting irritated about his complaining. Buffy rolled her eyes for the millionth time that night.
"We could share the bed," said Dean.
"No, we couldn't," replied Buffy.
"You don't trust me. Is that it?"
"Nope."
"Oh, I've got it. You don't trust yourself with someone like me." Dean grinned, but didn't expect a pillow to be thrown at him. "Ouch."
"Shut up! Go to sleep."
Dean got tired of trying to go to sleep and decided to look around the room. He found one of Dawn's witchcraft books on the floor and decided to take a peek at it. It had some strange incantations and some that his father knew about and taught him. Then he found this spell about destroying the complete essence of a spirit, but the side effect to the spell is that one needs to be dead, technically a spirit, to make the spell work.
"That's stupid."
"What now?"
"A spell here to vanquish a spirit, but the person who does the spell has to be dead."
Buffy gets up and looks at Dean. She knew she wasn't going to get any sleep with him around.
"Wouldn't you give your life up for the people you love?"
"Yeah, but this is plain dumb. Anybody can see that."
"I don't doubt you think of anyone but yourself."
"Hey! I do. I take care of my brother. He's the only family I've got. I'd do anything for him. And you?"
"Been there done that."
"Huh?"
"I died twice. It's like a song."
"It's a strange feeling." Buffy looked at him. "I died once."
"What? Someone dent your car and you fainted from shock."
"Hey! I died for real. If it wasn't for my dad, I would be dead now. Made a deal with the devil. Not figuratively speaking. He gave his life up for me."
"Oh. I'm sorry. I didn't…"
"AHHHH!" yelled Dawn from the other room. "Dad!"
Buffy and Dean looked at each other, then rushed over to the door to get to Hank's room.
Inside, the spirit had appeared surprising both Sam and Dawn when they saw Hank with a gun pointed at his head. The spirit was right next to him, holding the gun just right. Sam had his gun and shot at the spirit. She disappeared. Sam quickly pulled Hank away and took the gun away from his hand. He pushed him to the bathroom and was about to close the door, when he noticed the gun in his hand disappeared. He made his way back to the room.
Dawn was looking at Sam and didn't realize that the spirit was behind her. Sam's eyes widened and gave Dawn a warning. Dawn turned around and held on to her necklace. The spirit had the gun in her hand and it was pointed at Dawn. She had enough and quickly waved Sam away as he was about to shoot her again with that gun of his. Sam fell over the bed and hit the wall on the other side of the bed.
"Sam," said Dawn, worried that he had hurt himself. Dawn couldn't move. She felt this cold feeling inside her as the spirit pointed the gun toward her. The spirit pulled the trigger and shot Dawn in the gut. She collapsed. Sam saw it happen as he was about to get up.
Buffy and Dean saw it as they both rushed into the room. Buffy was in shock and couldn't move for a second.
"Where's Mr. Summers?" asked Dean to Sam.
"In the bathroom," replied Sam.
Buffy rushed to Dawn's side, who was bleeding a lot from her wound. She placed her hand on the wound to try to stop the bleeding. Buffy looked up and saw the spirit walking toward the bathroom. Dean pointed the gun at the spirit as Sam went to Dawn's side and placed his jacket under her head to keep her comfortable.
"I've had enough of you," said Dean. This got the attention of the spirit. "You old hag. Your husband is dead and so are his friends. Leave the living alone." The spirit turned around and glared at Dean.
"Dawn, sweetie," said Buffy, brushing some strands of her hair from her face. Dawn started to have some breathing problems and couldn't get a sentence out. "You have to hold on." Sam quickly called an ambulance on his cell phone. Dawn suddenly stopped moving and another cold chill came over the room.
Sam looked up and saw Dawn's spirit. He grabbed Buffy's hand, who was still looking at Dawn's lifeless body crying her eyes out. She then looked up and saw Dawn.
"I'm dead," said Dawn a little surprised. She then looked at the spirit, who was glaring at the girl. Dawn smirked. "Oh oh, the spell. How does it go?"
"Ashes to ashes…" Dean said, still aiming the gun at the spirit that had realized something was not right.
"Right," said Dawn. "Ashes to ashes, spirit to spirit. Take their soul, banish this evil." The spirit started to burn into flames and disappeared. Dean put his gun down and turned to Dawn.
"Good job," said Dean.
Hank exited the bathroom and saw Dawn on the floor and Buffy with a bloody hand. He was very worried.
"Dawn," said Hank. "My little girl is dead."
"No, she's not!" cried Buffy. "She's a fighter. Come on, Dawn.
"You guys," said Dawn, feeling something strange as she started to disappear. "Help…"
Dean headed into the bathroom to find a first aid kit and some rubbing alcohol. Sam started doing CPR on Dawn.
"We gotta stop the bleeding," said Dean. He got some gauze with alcohol on it and placed it on the wound. Then put more gauze with pressure. Buffy grabbed Dawn's hand.
Meanwhile, in a beautiful, white place filled with brightness, Dawn appeared walking to a familiar figure. Dawn knew who it was and she hugged her when she arrived at her side.
"Dawn, sweetheart," said Joyce.
"I'm so happy to see you, Mom," replied Dawn.
"Honey, it's not your time to go." Dawn looked up at her mother. She caressed her cheek. "I'm sorry. As much as I want you here, you can't stay."
"It's not."
"Buffy needs you. You both need each other. You two are all you've got, just like Sam and Dean."
"Then I won't leave her."
Back in Hank's room, Sam continued to do the CPR. He wasn't going to give up on her. Dean thought it was hopeless. She had lost a lot of blood. There was no way they'd be able to revive her.
Suddenly she started to breathe again. She coughed a little and Buffy hugged her. Hank stopped pacing when he saw her breathe.
"Dawn, I thought I lost you," Buffy mumbled after each sob.
"Like I'm going to leave you," said Dawn. "You're not the only one that can come back from the dead." Buffy pulled away and laughed a little at Dawn's comment. They heard the ambulance. Hank quickly went downstairs to open the door for them.
Dean helped Buffy up as the medic came in to tend to Dawn. Sam was still at Dawn's side and she grabbed his hand. Sam looked at her as they were putting her on the stretcher.
"Thank you," said Dawn. The medics then took her away.
"What happened here?" asked one of the medics.
"It's my fault," said Hank. Dean, Sam, and Buffy looked at him with shocked expressions. "See, I was kidnapped by these ruthless men and I escaped from them. My name is Hank Summers. They must have followed me home. My daughters came to see me and see if I was all right. It was the wrong time and wrong place."
"Where's the culprit?"
"Got away," said Dean. Buffy looked at him with wide eyes. "Me and my brother were passing by and heard the gunshot."
"They helped out," said Buffy. "If it wasn't for them, Dawn wouldn't be alive." Buffy looked at both Dean and Sam. The medic believed the story and headed out with the rest of the medics.
"We should go," said Hank as he grabbed a pair of pants and a jacket.
"You should ride with Dawn," said Buffy as she approached her dad. She placed her hand on his shoulder. Hank turned to his daughter and just realized how very grown up his little Buffy was. He just nodded and headed downstairs.
Buffy headed for the bathroom to wash the blood from her hands. She began to look at herself in the mirror and from the corner of it, she saw Dean at the doorway of the bathroom.
"Ready to go?" asked Dean. He could see in her expression that she was holding something in. Her eyes seemed to be lost as she looked at herself in the mirror. Buffy then turned off the faucet, turned around, and grabbed hold of Dean. He was surprised that she'd show him such affection but then he realized as he felt her sob against his chest. She was letting all of her emotions out, which was something Buffy would never do in front of anyone. Dean wrapped his arms around and tried to soothe her by rubbing her back.