Chapter Five
There was silence in the cabin after Tash and Sanna had finished explaining their plan to their friends. Clay and Rachael sat on Rach's bed while Lachie and Teddy were leaning against the only bunk bed in the room. Both groups were staring in amazement at their respective twin. Tash and Sanna glanced at each other and decided this wasn't the reception they'd wanted to greet the announcement.
The twins had decided to let their friends in on the secret because without their help, the likelihood of success fell dramatically. Besides, if something happened and they were stuck, they'd need back up. Tash wanted to tell Mick but Sanna refused. Two people were enough, they didn't need to worry about a third.
"Tash..." Clay started.
"You know we love you, right? With that said, you're nuts," Rachael put it bluntly.
Tash blinked and shrugged. "What would you do if your mom and dad hid a sister from you? A twin sister?"
"I'd bloody well give them a piece of my mind. This is too sneaky. One of us will slip up and then where does that leave us?"
"Up shit creek without a paddle," Clay provided.
"Not to pick sides," Teddy interjected before either of the Scrappies could speak up again, "but they have a point, Sanna. Someone's going to see through it and your dad will ground you until you finish Hogwarts."
Lachie could only stare at the two of them standing side by side. The others in the room had had their fair share of the weird but poor Lachie was only the son of a professional Keeper, he wasn't up to dealing with weird. Tash noticed and raised an eyebrow. "Do you have something to say?" All eyes turned to Lachie and he could only blink. "Well?"
"You're the same." Tash and Sanna rolled their eyes and that only made Lachie all the more amazed. "Everything. The little things. You both roll your eyes and you get this snarky look on your face, that's the one!" The twins looked at each other and blinked then giggled. "Blimey."
"Now that we've gotten past the whole long lost twin thing," Sanna started, "Can we get to the part where we figure out how to get past the problems, instead of just bringing them up?"
"Well, where do you start?" Teddy snarked back. "First off, there's the accent."
"I can fix that," Clay volunteered. Rachael hit him for encouraging them but Clay felt it was justified when he saw his pseudo-sister beam at him. This was important to Tash and if they were stubborn enough to go through with it, then he was going to do as much as he could to make sure they wouldn't be caught.
Teddy had yet to give up. "What about the hair?" Tash eyed Sanna's hair and vice versa. Tash's grazed her shoulders while Sanna's was longer, almost down to her waist. Sanna had always wondered what if would look like if she cut her hair and now she knew: cute.
"You any good with a pair of scissors?" Sanna asked Tash and Tash just grinned.
"Good enough."
"Problem solved," Sanna declared. "Tash can just tell Dad that she cut her hair."
Rachael gave in with a sigh. "You could use a growing charm. A Bryant girl did it wrong last year and she had to go to the Hospital Wing with seven feet of hair trailing behind her." Clay and Tash made a grossed-out face but Sanna, Teddy and Lachie looked at each other in confusion.
"Bryant?" Sanna asked Tash.
"Bryant is one of our Houses. Rach and I are in Martinez, Clay's in Russell and the other two are Cooper and Sanders."
"Huh. Five houses."
"What's that supposed to mean? Just because you've got that crazy four house thing going on." Tash stuck her tongue out and Teddy was struck by just how similar the two were without them knowing it.
"Ladies and gentlemen," Tash said, opening her arms wide to the room. "Mission Weasley-Summers is a go."
* * *
It had been three weeks since Tash and Sanna had discovered the truth and they were well on their way to bringing their little scheme into fruition. They'd barely left each other's sides since, learning all there was to know about each other. Sanna snuck into Tash's cabin every night when Tash wasn't sneaking into hers and they'd lie there, talking to each other. Tash told Sanna about the Scoobies and the Watcher's Council and most of all about Dawn. Likewise, Sanna whispered about the Weasleys and everyone she could think of. She mentioned Charlie as often as possible. They talked about anything and everything whether it was relevant or not.
Of course this resulted in little sleep which made their daytime operations a little difficult. Luckily, their friends already knew that their friends were not morning people and that they should make as little contact as possible during the earlier hours. The councillors, however, were stumped as to how these two hellcats were suddenly extremely chummy and were whispering conspiratorially to each other over the weekly bonfire.
Clay spent most of his free time trying to perfect the accent problem when he wasn't constantly getting dragged away to do camp activities by the councillors. Hiking wasn't really high on his agenda, not when it competed against helping Tash and Sanna with their plan.
Rach and Teddy spent most of their time criticising the twins in their attempts to act like each other. Tash couldn't mimic Sanna's walk and Sanna kept blushing whenever Clay hugged her. The brains of the group were severely unimpressed with the efforts so far and were well aware that they only had another three weeks to perfect everything before it was put to the test in front of the people that knew them best. Sanna was just thankful that Charlie had agreed to let her stay at the Burrow for the rest of the summer. That way, it would be a lot easier for Tash to avoid him if necessary.
The twins were slowly growing to realise how hard this was going to be. With the exceptions of their friends here, they weren't going to know anyone on top of having to fool everyone into thinking they were someone they weren't. Luckily for them, their friends were pretty spectacular.
Another two weeks passed and the twins had swapped wardrobes to start getting used to it. Sanna couldn't imagine why Tash would need so many skirts but Tash was loving Sanna's favourite leather jacket.
"It's dragon leather, the best you can get. Dad got it for me from the Institute. Some of the dragons agree to let the tamers harvest their skin when they die so it's ethical and it looks awesome," Sanna informed her awestruck sister.
"When this is all over," Tash said, inspecting the jacket very closely, "we are getting me one of these. Like, the moment after mom and dad are holding hands." Sanna just laughed and tried to make sure the skirt stayed where it was supposed to.
Clay had finished prototypes for the accent charms and they tested them out on the councillors throughout the week. The start of their last week rolled around quicker than anyone expected and everyone was starting to get antsy.
Tash paced Sanna and Teddy's cabin restlessly before the camp's morning pow-wow, the rest of their little group watching as she stomped from one end of the room to the other over and over again. Rachael was the one to finally break the tense silence.
"Bloody hell, Tash. What is it?"
"I'm not ready. We're not ready. This isn't going to work. Dad's going to see straight through me and he's going to Floo me back home and then where will we be? Separated again, with only one parent but this time I'll know you're out there. That won't fucking accomplish anything." She leant against the wall, close to tears but fighting valiantly against them. "I don't think I can do it. I sure as hell don't want to either."
The room was silent as Sanna got up and placed her hand on her sister's shoulder, pulling her into a hug. "It'll be fine. We'll be ready, I promise. We've still got a week. We'll pull through. Weasleys always do."
"We Summers women do too." Tash could afford a weak smile and the beaming grin Sanna lent out made her feel better. "OK, enough of this pansy breakdown stuff. What do we have?"
"Voice charm is pretty much ready. Are we going to trial it today?"
Sanna nodded. "Which means we're going to have to swap names as well. There's no point in confusing everyone."
"Right. So, you're Tash. Goddess, that's weird."
Teddy interjected. "You can't say Goddess. It'll have to be Merlin or 'blimey.'"
"Blimey?" Tash looked almost disgusted.
Sanna shrugged. "It's what Uncle Ron says. You get used to it. You never swear around Grandma Molly unless you want your mouth washed out with soap. Literally."
Tash made a disgusted face. "Note: Fear Grandma Molly."
Teddy laughed. "That's the spirit, Sanna."
The room froze, Teddy's hair blushing crimson, and the twins just looked at each other before breaking out into savage grins. "Oh yeah," Tash said. "This is going to be fun."
* * *
Dawn managed to make it the rest of the three weeks of the dig without breaking down and smuggling Tash back home. Barely. Oliver being around helped immensely, she had to say. It didn't hurt that he tended to scare off Ian and, as bad as that made her feel, she was definitely glad for that.
Ian decided to stay on at the excavation but Dawn wanted to get back well before Tash to settle back into the swing of things. Ollie saw her to the airport and made sure she caught her plane with a kiss on the cheek and a hug. Dawn managed to drag out a promise to visit with a pout and a liberal helping of puppy-dog eyes. Distance was no excuse when one could Apparate or Floo.
Connor picked her up from the airport and she briefly had flashes of the shamed mother she'd been sixteen years ago before letting them slide off her like water off a duck's back. There was no need to think of Charlie and Sanna. They were long gone and without some sort of miracle, it was going to stay that way.
When they entered the atrium, Dawn breathed a sigh of relief and Connor squeezed her shoulder to tell her it was good she was back. They'd never really needed words, the two of them. It was probably what made them such good friends. Words made a habit of ruining lives. Life without words was so much easier, which was ironic coming from a group of people that tended to babble. She supposed that's how they knew the power of words so well. Who else but those with experience would understand?
She popped in to say hello to Giles and Xander then practically fled to her room, flinging herself onto her bed with a sigh. Goddess, it was good to be home. She rolled on her side and peered at the photo of her and Tash, when her daughter had been all of nine. Pigtails and scrapes. Nothing had really changed, except maybe the pigtails. She was still getting into scrapes like any real Summers woman.
A knock at her door made her glance up and saw Buffy standing in the doorway. "How was the flight?"
"Good. It was quiet and boring, just the way I like it." The sisters shivered in unison. Their dislike of planes was well known. Fighting demons and saving the world? No problem. But mention a plane going down and it sent them close to hysterics. "Oh, and you'll never guess who found me in Scotland."
"Some cute, young thing that whisked you away from Ian?" Buffy asked jokingly.
"Close but not quite. Do you remember Oliver Wood?"
Buffy's jaw dropped. "Hotty McScotland? Mr Accent?"
Dawn laughed. "Yes, Buffy. Mr Accent. He was running an errand for Percy and-"
"Wait, Percy, as in the nerdy Weasley?"
Dawn nodded and she could hear the unspoken 'Charlie's younger brother' in the sentence and continued. "Anyway, he works with dear old Percy and he heard my name being thrown around the campsite and decided to come looking. You know he's coaching the Montrose Magpies now? And he has a son, Lachlan."
"And?" Buffy coaxed.
"And nothing, really. He just caught me up on what's been happening since I was gone from England. The Weasleys seem to have expanded again. And Ollie's son, Lachie? He's friends with... with Susanna." Dawn teared up but blinked them away before Buffy could say anything. "I keep forgetting she's not that baby I held in my arms. She's growing up, same as Tash. I wonder... No, I don't wonder. It's fine. But how weird is that? I think Ollie might have planned to stalk me. He promised to visit during the term," Dawn said brightly, changing the subject.
Buffy refused to follow. "It's all right to cry, Dawnie."
"No, it's not. It's been sixteen years, Buffy. I should have gotten used to the idea that I don't get to be a major part of her life. We made the decision for a reason. It'd be too hard for the girls to keep up the long distance thing. We decided it was better this way." Dawn allowed herself the weakness of sniffling a little before standing up and smoothing out the back of her pants. "Right, well, I've been away for four weeks, surely there's something for me to do."
Buffy stood slowly, amazed at how much in denial her baby sister was. "Go bug Andrew, I'm sure he's full of distracting stuff for you to do."
Dawn smiled tightly and squeezed Buffy's hand. "I'll tell you about the rest later?"
"Definitely, and no rainchecks."
"You bet."
* * *
The twins were counting down until the last day of camp, anticipating it with both a little dread and a little excitement. They finally got to meet the parent they'd never known. Meanwhile their friends were constantly pestering them in their mannerisms.
"You've got to cut out this 'mum' business, Sanna. One syllable and they'll know for sure."
"Tash, stop fidgeting. Your hair looks fine." The hair adjustments had taken place the previous day and both girls were antsy. Tash felt hampered and vulnerable from all this hair. All it took was one hair pull in a fight for her to start whimpering like a little girl. Sanna, however, was definitely seeing the upside to having a shorter hairstyle, especially in the summer heat.
They had three days until camp was over and the twins were beginning to realise that not only meant the mission was really going to start but they were going to be separated again. There was not a night that had gone by without one of the girls sneaking into the other's cabin. The lead up to the last day only resulted in longer nights and harder 'training', as Tash put it. Now when the councillors came looking, they really couldn't tell they'd swapped. While gratifying, it only made the girls work harder. Fooling strangers was easy, it was fooling family that was the hardest part.
Charlie had owled the other day saying that he'd meet Sanna at the Burrow, where she'd be staying for the next two weeks until it was time for school. Tash was a little apprehensive about getting thrust straight into the belly of the beast because apparently some of her younger cousins would be having a sleepover. It was enough to pull her enormous amount of hair out.
Sanna caught her trying to do just that and held her hands while her sister whimpered. "Natasha Joyce Summers, just calm down, all right? It'll be fine." Tash let the sound of her sister's voice wash over her and she nodded.
"What would you do at sleepovers? Please don't tell me there'll be girly magazines and hair products?"
"Says the girl who owns way too many skirts. Don't you ever have girly sleepovers?"
"Well yeah, but they're only half girly." At Sanna's raised eyebrow, she elaborated. "Me, Rach and Mick's little sister Jessie will sit around and paint each other's nails and do a bit of gossip and then me and Rach will go out patrolling with Aunt Faith."
Sanna nodded, eyes wide. "Oh bugger, I'm going to have to patrol, aren't I?"
"Oh yeah. Don't worry, it's so much fun. You'll be paired with either Buffy, Faith or Mick."
"Just Mick? But I thought only girls could be Slayers..."
"Well yeah but he's got the freaky super strength going for him. He inherited it from Faith. He's not as strong or as fast as a full fledged Slayer but he can hold his own. Seriously, just relax and follow your instincts."
"Mum, er, Mom lets you do this?"
Tash shrugged. "She freaked out a little at the start but once she saw I can take care of myself with a little help, she only made me call back every half hour instead of every fifteen minutes."
Sanna didn't look any more reassured and Tash felt a little bad for turning the tables on her sister, who'd only been trying to comfort her.
"Seriously, if you're not sure about it, you only have to go like once a week." Sanna nodded and took a deep breath.
"OK, so you remember our escape plan? The night before the Hogwarts Express comes, we'll Floo. Clay and Rach will be on the LA side and Teddy will be waiting on the UK side. Besides, we've got these," Sanna said, holding up the lockets that Rach had grudgingly made up for them. In each one was a photo of the other twin and all they had to say was 'audite vos mihi' and the other would appear like a holograph, Star Wars style. The sigil on the front would glow when they were being contacted. They'd be able to communicate like that if it was urgent.
"Do you think we're ready, Tash?" Sanna asked with more than a little trepidation. It was the first time she'd questioned it, what with Tash being the one who had the tiny breakdowns regularly and Sanna being the one to calm her down.
Tash shrugged. "Well, if we're not, we're three days away from finding out."
"Well gee, doesn't that just fill me with the kind of confidence that isn't?" Sanna retorted drily.
"See? You'll fit right in." Sanna's response was to punch her in the arm. Hard.