Ch 6
Dawn sighed she couldn't believe she was arguing with a child, she also couldn't believe what they were arguing about. "For the last time Danni, you are not coming with me tonight. Your mother would kill me if she knew I took you out there" Dawn pinched the bridge of her nose, Danni stomped her foot
"I thought you were cool!" she yelled before running up stairs and slamming her bedroom door. Tara came out of the kitchen drying her hands on a tea towel
"What was that about?" she asked meekly
"Danni has been asking me all day to come out with me tonight" Dawn explained
"So why not take her? From what I hear there hasn't been much beastie activity lately" Dawn's jaw dropped
"Do you know how horrid I would feel if anything happened to that little girl! It would kill me to lose her, she's the only thing besides you that keeps me in this hellhole!" Dawn fought, tears pricking her eyes as she realized she really had nothing but these two women tying her to this hell.
"I believe in you Dawn, I believe you can protect her. And I know it would kill you to lose her, but I think you can do it, you've had all the slayer training plus you can wield the magicks" Tara smiled, wiping Dawn's tears away with her thumb. "You may not see it Dawn but you're her Spike" Dawn's eyes snapped to the blonde witch's face in confusion, Tara nodded "You may not have fangs or an outdated leather duster but you treat her exactly how Spike treated you when you needed someone, I know you wont let anything touch her like Spike wouldn't let anything touch you." Dawn didn't know what to say, Tara smiled again before kissing Dawn's cheek and walking back to the kitchen. She sighed, she knew Tara was right she knew she could protect Danni she just didn't want to take the chance of any demons getting their hands on her. She sighed again before making her way upstairs towards the child's room, she knocked "Danni can I come in?"
"No" she yelled
"Please Bit, I wanna talk"
"Fine" Dawn opened the girl's door and found her standing with her arms crossed and her back turned
"Bit please look at me" Dawn begged, Danni turned and Dawn's breath caught in her throat, the look of almost pure hate on the small girls face was like a stake to the heart. Dawn suddenly wondered if that's how Spike felt every time they fought and she looked at him like that.
"I hate you Auntie Dawn, you're not even really my aunt! Your not even real!" Danni yelled, Dawn was floored she couldn't even begin to conjure up a response for the child. Tears slipped down Dawn's cheeks before she even registered she was crying, she took one last painful look at the look of hate of Danni's small face and just ran from the room, down the stairs and out the back door before Tara could even ask her where she was going, Dawn collapsed in the backyard, falling to her knees and sobbing into her hands. Tara fell to her knees beside the sobbing woman, pulling her into her small body
"What the hell?" Tara asked worried, she rarely cursed but now seemed like a good time
"She hates me" Dawn sobbed, "She said she hated me, that I wasn't really her aunt, that I wasn't even real!" Dawn cried harder recalling to the witch what the small child had said. Tara sighed and rubbed the woman's back trying to calm her down
"Dawn do you remember the first day you found out Buffy and Spike were having sex?"
"How could I not" she replied weakly, sniffing
"You remember he went to your room to talk to you and you yelled at him and told him you hated him and never wanted to see him again?" Dawn nodded looking up at the witch "Do you know what he did when he left your room?" she shook her head, she had suspected he'd gone off with Buffy "He came out here, sat in that chair" Tara pointed to Joyce's favorite chair on the porch "And cried to me about how he didn't know why you hated him and how he vowed to make it up to you and make sure you never hated him again" more tears prepared themselves on Dawn's lashes, but she refused to let them fall
"How am I supposed to make up the fact I'm not real to her? She's got Buffy's stubbornness and anger. I mean god all she needs is Slayer powers and you've got Buffy in a five year old's body" Dawn sighed, slightly hiccupping.
"That may be true but they both have more than that in common, they both love you very much and now have both said some very hurtful things to you but you have to remember that deep down they still love you very much" Dawn hugged the witch suddenly
"What would I do without you Tar?" she sniffled
"Well you would have left a long time ago I know that, and you wouldn't have had a wonderful niece standing on the porch behind you crying" Dawn spun around, there Danni was holding herself, like her mother does, tears staining her pale face staring at Dawn like a lost puppy, tears rolled down Dawn's face once again as the small child ran forward and threw her arms around her neck. "I'm so sorry Auntie Dawn!" Danni sobbed
"It's ok Bit" Dawn mumbled into the girls shoulder, not noticing Tara moving back into the house. Dawn and Danni stayed there until Danni fell asleep, sighing Dawn picked up the sleeping girl and carried her back into the house
"I'll take her, you go out" Tara smiled and took the small girl form Dawn's arms. Dawn nodded before grabbing her hoddie and pulling it over her head, pulling her hair back into a high ponytail and sticking a stake down her sleeve. She kissed Tara's cheek "Lock the door once I'm gone" Tara nodded
The graveyard was oddly quiet and it slightly worried Dawn that something was brewing, she sighed passing Joyce's grave knowing she didn't have the time or energy to stop and talk, which depressed her. She had cast a small spell on the way to mask her sent with the sent of her sister, put her one ear phone in and turned on her rave music. She didn't know why she liked rave music, but it filled her with a fire that nothing else did and while out in the graveyard fighting baddies fire is exactly what she needed. She trusted her senses enough to not need her ears like her older sister, she moved between the stones like she owned the place. She spun when someone cleared their throat behind her "The Slayer usually dresses better" the vampire joked
"Really? Good thing I'm not the Slayer then huh?" Dawn pictured what she always did when she was out, Spike, she let the pent up anger he left her with out on the vampire dusting him in minutes. She sighed "Too easy" she knew it could be hours before she found another vamp or demon; it was going to be a long night. She moved away from Joyce's grave
Spike sat in the recliner in his crypt his trusty bottle of Jack beside him, getting him through the painfully long night; there was nothing on TV and last he heard the Slayer was in China with the Watcher and as he had no idea where the Bit was he wasn't going to go out and search for her if she wasn't even in Sunnyhell anymore, if she'd even want to see him after he just left her ignoring her calling his name behind him. He cringed as relived the memory behind closed eyes; she looked so devastated as the Slayer yelled in his face about bollocks knows what, he just stood there and watched as she tried to break away from the Watcher who was holding her back. He wasn't one hundred percent sure what she was going to do but she was eighteen by then she should have been able to do what she wanted. He snarled as the memory continued, he almost hadn't had the strength to walk away from her, her screams still haunted him as he walked the earth waking him from a dead sleep in a cold sweat, a constant reminder of how much he'd fucked up. He growled, took one last sip form the bottle and threw it against the stonewall, his hands went to his head and he snarled "Spike! Don't leave me! Spike!" her voice had sounded so broken, he could still smell the salt from her tears "Spike please!"
He stood in front of Buffy; if looks could kill he would have been dust as soon as the Slayer had caught up with him. The others hadn't caught up yet and he was slightly thankful, he pulled a box out of the pocket of his duster, a ribbon around it marked it as a present. Buffy glared at him "Gifts aren't going to change my mind Spike, I want you out of my town"
"It's not for you Slayer. Little Bit's birthday is coming up and as I wont be here I was foolishly hoping one of you would give it to her for me" he knew he sounded pathetic but as Buffy had grown to hate him over the past few months, he and Dawn had gotten closer and he wasn't quiet sure what he was feeling for the eighteen year old but it wasn't completely friendship. Buffy ripped the box from his hands and ripped the ribbon off "Hey!" he protested, she ignored him and opened the box. In side was a elaborately decorated porcelain container, she flipped open the container revealing a gleam of silver on a red pillow, she picked up a silver ring out of the box, it was beautiful; the band was about a centimeter wide wrapping around into Celtic knots on either side with the traditional Claddagh symbol of two hands holding a heart topped with a crown, she noticed that above the crown was an intricate Celtic love knot. Buffy just stared at it, sure Angel had given her one when she was seventeen but it was nothing like this one, she hated the man in front of her but nodded to signal she would give it to her sister. Spike sighed and watched as Dawn came running up the street the Watcher close behind her, Giles grabbed her arms and pulled her back away from him, he could smell the salt from her tears. Buffy started yelling at him, it was a show for Dawn and the others as he'd already said he'd leave, he starred at Dawn the whole screaming fit from the Slayer. She fought and writhed trying to free herself from the Watcher and run to him but Giles held fast and firm, it took everything he had not to rip the old man's hands off of her and take her with him. Once Buffy was done yelling out her frustration, he turned and began walking away, unnoticed salt water running down his face, he could hear Dawn screaming but he kept walking, it was better for everyone that they forgot about him and that Dawn moved on and lived a normal life.
He couldn't take it anymore he had to get out and had to kill something. His game face already on he grabbed his duster and swished out of the stone tomb. He stopped outside the door and inhaled deeply, it was unnecessary but it helped him catch the sent of a supposedly absent Slayer, he smirked he hadn't had a good round of beat the Slayer in a long time. He stalked towards where the sent was coming from, the sent suddenly becoming laced with the smell of cigarette smoke "So the Slayer has taken up smoking" he thought laughing. He continued following the sent until he found a hooded figure standing under a willow tree nursing his brand of smokes. He knew the figure wasn't the Slayer; the figure had long dark hair and a pale complexion as he could tell from her hands but he couldn't wrap his mind around why the figure smelled like the Slayer and nothing else. He chalked it up to it being one of the potentials that stuck around and her sent was some sort of spell Red had cast. He snarled his demon raging though him "Those will kill you"
There is a picture of the ring I described on my profile page for those how cant quite picture it.