Chapter Three: Sisterly Bonding

"Dawn?" Buffy whispered, opening the Scott's front door with the key she had. So far the house was silent as Buffy tiptoed her way through the spacious living room, "Little sis?"

She poked her head into the kitchen, "Dawn?" The kitchen was empty so Buffy went to the stairs. She climbed the long stairwell, deciding to go to Lucas and Dawn's bedroom first. That's where Lucas said he last saw her, so it only makes sense that that would be where she was. Buffy slipped her denim jacket off and slung it on her arm. She tiptoed down the upstairs hall to her sister's bedroom. The door was partially open and she pushed it, "Dawn are you in here?"

There was no answer as the eldest Summers sister made her way into the room. Dawn wasn't in there. Buffy looked around, seeing if anything was out of the ordinary.

Well, the bed wasn't made but that made sense. If Dawn woke up and freaked out and Lucas left right away, there wouldn't have been anyone to make the bed. All of the pictures frames were as they should be on the dressers. The vanity looked normal: same neat clutter of Dawn's make-up, lotions, and hairbrushes and clips.

The only thing that looked out of place was the baby monitor strewn and tangled on the floor. The cord lay a few feet away from the outlet. Buffy raised her eyebrows and went over to it, picking it up. It wasn't broken, just a little bent. Buffy plugged it into the outlet. The green light lit up indicating it had been on when it had been taken out of the wall.

At first, all Buffy heard was static when she put the monitor up to her ear. Then, very faintly, she could hear the sound of crying. It was too soft to be Emy's voice.

Buffy set the monitor back on the side table and stood up. She dropped her jacket on the bed. She let the room, going down the hall to Emily's nursery. She'd been to her niece's room very often since her birth. The first couple of weeks after Emy had been born, Dawn and Lucas had called their various family members often asking for help. And since Buffy was Dawn's sister, she was the one who was called the most.

Buffy turned the corner and saw that Emy's door was open just a little bit. Buffy opened her eyes wide in confusion and pushed open the door.

There was a screamed and a sobbed "Leave me alone" as Buffy tiptoed into the baby's room. Once inside she saw her little sister, crouched in the corner of the nursery. Her hair was covering her face and her head was buried in her knees. "Please, just leave me alone . . ." Dawn was begging, sobbing. Little Emily was asleep in the crib.

"Dawnie, it's me. It's your sister B—"

"Buffy?" Dawn finished. The younger woman looked up, her eyes red and puffy.
"Oh, sweetie!" Buffy said sympathetically. She knelt down and held her sister in her arms, "Dawnie, what happened?"

"Buffy, I'm so scared!" Dawn wept, "There was this man, in my bed, when I woke up. I swear he wasn't there when I went to bed last night!"

"What are you talking about?" Buffy said.

"I woke up, and he was just there," Dawn said, "He was just there and I swear, we didn't do anything!"

Buffy started laughing, covering her mouth as not to awaken her niece.

"Why are you laughing at me?" Dawn cried.

"I'm sorry," Buffy took a breath. Dawn sat up, "It's just, you really don't remember him, don't you?"

"If by 'him' you mean the practically naked man in my bed this morning, then yes," Dawn said, "When I went to bed last night, we were in San Diego at the hotel. Sunnydale had just been turned into a giant crater and Spike and Anya just died!"

Buffy exhaled deeply, "Wow. Then I take it you're very confused right now." Dawn nodded anxiously, "Well, Dawn, that was almost seven years ago." Buffy held her breath, waiting for a reaction.

"What!" Dawn shouted, her eyes wide. In her crib, Emily stirred.

"Sssshhh!" Buffy whispered, "You'll wake the baby! Come on, let's go down the hall."

"You have got a lot of explaining to do!" Dawn whispered back. Buffy nodded. They quietly got up. Buffy went over to the crib and reached inside of it. She gently pulled the fleece blanket around the small infant, stroking her cheek. The child's eyes were half open, drowsily staring off into space. Buffy ben her head down and kissed Emy on the forehead, "Sleep tight, Emy, just a little longer." Emily's eyes closed once again and sleep overtook the small child. Buffy smiled affectionately at how adorable her niece was.

Dawn looked on while her sister tended to the unfamiliar small child. In the pictures in the bedroom, Dawn had also seen Buffy with the baby, "Buffy, who is that? Whose is that?"

Buffy stroked the child's temple until she was fully asleep. She turned to her sister and smiled, "Dawn, this . . . this is Emily. She's, well, she's your daughter."

"My d-daug . . ." Dawn's eyes rolled back and she started to fall. Buffy hurried forward quickly and caught her. Dawn shook her head, trying to get rid of the sick feeling that was currently taking residence in her stomach.

"Come on, why don't we got down the hall. You can sit so you don't faint again."

Dawn nodded, gulping, "Sounds like a plan." She took a step forward but her knees gave out again. Thankfully, Buffy was right there and prevent her from collapsing.

They left the room, going back down the hall Dawn had been in earlier, following the cries. Buffy held on to Dawn's arm and the younger sibling was all too glad for it. For without her older sister's support, she would surely (fall). It had always been that way as far back as Dawn could remember. Well, before her memory had stopped working anyway. Buffy was always saving Dawn from something. When dad had been five and Buffy eleven they had gone to the park down the block because their parents had been fighting. Dawn had been on the swing and Buffy was pushing her. They'd stayed there awhile, just laughing and having fun, as if their life was always perfect. Buffy had said something and had really made Dawn upset so she had run away.

Buffy later said she hadn't been looking for very long for her but to Dawn it had felt like an eternity. Short enough as it was, Dawn's short-attention span had kicked in and she'd run somewhere else. By the time Buffy had found her, there was glass embedded in the palm of her hands. Dawn had run off to a different park their parents told them never to go too. She'd accidently cut herself on a piece of glass that had been lying at the end of the slide on the playground. Buffy had taken Dawn home and their parents had stopped fighting long enough to take Dawn to the hospital. In the end, Dawn had gotten stitches and Buffy was grounded for not paying enough attention to her little sister.

Of course, things like had happened multiple times during the years of their childhood. Not that they were technically real memories, of course, since Dawn was what informally referred to as 'the Key.' When she had been fourteen years old, sort of, these mystical monks had turned the key, which had been just a mystical ball of energy, into Dawn and sent her to Buffy for the slayer to protect. Now, Dawn was just a normal human girl. Or rather, a normal human woman.

The two Summers sisters entered the bedroom and Dawn sat down on the bed. Buffy stood a few feet away, crossing her arms. Dawn broke the eerie silence, "H-How old am I?"

Buffy sighed, "You're almost twenty-three."

Dawn's eyes went wide, "Twenty-three?"

Buffy nodded, "It's July, which means your birthday is just a couple of months away."

"And . . . Emma? When's her birthday?" Dawn asked.

"Emily, but we all call her Emy," Buffy said. Dawn looked to the ground, "That's okay. Um, she was born on September third. Just six days before yours."

"Cool," Dawn noted.
"Yeah, that's pretty much what you said when you went into labor. You were just happy you didn't have her on your birthday," Buffy said.

"And that guy . . ." Dawn said.

"That guy," Buffy said, "Is your husband and Emily's father. His name is Lucas."

"Lucas," Dawn swallowed.

"Lucas Scott," Buffy told her, "Basketball coach at Tree Hill High School, novelist. Loving husband and father." Buffy went over to one of the dressers and picked up a frame. She went back over to Dawn and handed it to her, "This is you guys on the day Emy was born."

Dawn took the picture and looked at it. She was in a hospital bed, in a white gown. In her arms was a small pink bundle with just a tiny face visible. Lucas sat on the bed beside Dawn, one arm around her shoulders and the other atop her hand. Lucas and she were both smiling, "We look so happy."

"You were," Buffy nodded, picking up another frame, "Still arm." The Slayer sat down next to Dawn, holding up the frame in her hand, "This is you, Lucas, and Emy at your niece's ballet just a few weeks ago." Dawn noticed that, again, all three of them were smiling, "You and Lucas are so much in love, Dawn."

Dawn sighed, tears budding in her eyes, "Then why don't I remember? Why don't I feel happy?"

"Dawnie, we'll figure this out," Buffy assured her, "There's got to be a logical explanation for how you could suddenly wake up and forget the last seven years of your life. Whether its natural or supernatural we'll find it."

"And what are we going to do in the meantime?" Dawn said, "I can't raise a kid. As far as I remember I'm only sixteen years old!"

"That's true," Buffy said, "And if I remember correctly you exactly the 'mother-type' when you were sixteen."

"Damn strait!" Dawn nodded.

"I can help you," Buffy said, "Yeah. We'll call Willow and Xander and have an old-fashioned Scooby meeting—plus babysitting! It'll be fun."

"And once we get Giles involved we'll have an answer almost right away."

Buffy frowned, looking at the floor, "Dawn . . ."

"What, does he not live here?" Dawn said.
Buffy sighed, "No, actually he doesn't . . . in a matter of speaking . . ."

"And that means . . ."

Buffy put both photo frames down on the bed. She took her sister's hands in her own, "Dawnie, I'm so sorry, but . . . Giles is gone. Gone, as in, dead." Dawn gasped, covering her mouth, "I'm so sorry. I wish I could spare you from this pain all over again. It was a while ago, before you and Lucas even met. It tore you apart. You were hurt so much I didn't think anything would help you. Then, out of chance, you met Lucas. He really helped you a lot." Out of the blue, a loud crying erupted in the room, causing Dawn to jump. After a few moments she realized it was coming from the baby monitor again. "Oh, Emy's awake again." Buffy went over to the monitor and shut it off. "I better go get her. She hates being awake alone in the crib for too long." Dawn nodded, still reeling from the news about Giles, and Buffy left.

Dawn picked up the second photo frame Buffy had given her. It was a beautiful ornate black frame with curly silver lines on it. The picture, of course, was of Dawn, Lucas, and . . . oh yeah—Emily. Why was Dawn having the hardest time remembering her own child's name? Anyway, Emy was in Lucas arms on his hip. Dawn stood on the side Emily was not on—with her arm around his waist. And her face . . . there was a smile of happiness Dawn had never felt or seen on herself before. It was so foreign to her.

Could this all be a dream? Would she suddenly wake up at any moment in the hotel room in San Diego and start hysterically laughing out loud?

Or . . .

Was this real? Could it be real? Was Dawn a mother married to a man she'd never met before—or rather a man she didn't remember meeting and was supposedly so much in love with and vice versa?

But if it was real why couldn't she remember? She was pretty sure wives were supposed to remember their husbands and children, unless the movies she'd watched during her romance-movie-phase during her teens were wrong. Then again, this was a long time after she'd been twelve and thirteen years old. So the question remained; what was she going to do? And was she going to believe this was all real?

TBC