Chapter 3:

Barely half an hour passed before the two sisters arrived to their house. Dawn, who saw it for the first time, said nothing. During the entire drive home she'd remained quiet, lost in her own thoughts. Buffy wasn't surprised, but it worried her. Dawn would want answers; she'd want the truth about her past, and the past was something Buffy rarely spoke about, because that's what it was, the past, nothing else.

Neither of the two women spoke as they walked into the house. But when the door was closed firmly behind them, Dawn turned around and stared at her older sister for a long moment before she threw her bag at the floor, spun around and walked out of the hallway into the living room.

"Dawn!" Buffy called pleadingly as she followed her sister. "Don't act like this."

"Act how? Like I've been betrayed?" Dawn countered as she turned and met her sister's gaze. "I feel betrayed."

For a moment they were silent. The only sound heard was their hard breathing. But then Dawn spoke.

"Is she your sister?" She asked slowly.

"My half sister."

"How?"

"Mom had an affair with a man named Jacob Carter." Buffy said quietly. "They were both married, both were having troubles. They met in a bar. It was supposed to be a one night stand I guess."

"But?"

"Mom ended up pregnant. With me."

"But if she was married with da…Hank at the same time, why couldn't you be his?"

"Because Hank couldn't have children, he's sterile."

"Oh."

"I don't know exactly what happened; I don't have all the details." Buffy said. "I never bothered with finding out. All I know is that mom told Hank and he forgave her, and they decided to raise me as theirs."

"And Sam?"

"She's Jacob's daughter, she was born a few years before me."

"She knows about you." Dawn stated.

"Yeah, because Mom told Jacob about me." She said sighing. "And apparently he agreed that it was better that Hank was my dad, so he stayed away and worked on his own marriage. He'd show up a couple of times a year to visit us; sometimes he had Sam with him. That's the only time I ever really talked to her."

Silence spread across the room. Dawn stood still as she looked away, her sister's words slowly sinking in.

"Why didn't you tell me?" She asked finally.

"Dawnie…"

"No! Don't Dawnie me." Dawn spat. "You never once thought about telling me—your sister—that you had another sister? A half sister?"

"It never came up."

"I thought you trusted me." Dawn said accusingly.

"I did. I do."

"Then why didn't you tell me?"

"I never told anyone but Giles." Buffy answered her voice sounding tired beyond description.

"Why?"

"I…I don't know. When Mom and Hank split up and we moved to Sunnydale, I pretty much lost contact completely with Sam and…Jacob. I guess they didn't want to keep in touch with me after I burned down the gym." Buffy snorted humorlessly. "And at the time it was just easier to cut my ties with them than to try and repair stuff between us."

"Did they know?"

"About me being the Slayer?"

"Yeah." Dawn's voice was soft spoken.

"No."

Buffy slowly sat down on the couch, and put her head in her hands. She felt like crying, but she didn't. She knew Dawn was hurt, but she didn't know what else to say. After what felt like forever, she felt her sister sit down next to her and hesitantly leaned her head against her shoulder before reaching out and taking one of her sister's hands.

"I'm sorry." Buffy said softly.

"I'm sorry too."

For a moment they were both quiet again.

"She's really your sister?" Dawn's voice was low, thoughtful as she spoke.

"Yes."

"Is she mine?"

"Dawn…"

"The monks made me out of you, you've said so yourself." Dawn met her sister's gaze without looking away.

"Does that mean Sam is my sister too?"

Buffy looked away for a long moment before she took a deep ragged breath.

"Yes." She blinked hard in an attempt to get rid of the tears that was threatening to fall. "I think so."

"Wow…" Dawn said finally.

"Yeah."

Neither of them spoke. Neither of them needed to say anything. They both knew they couldn't tell Sam the truth. She could never know that she had another sister. Too many secrets could be revealed then; too many things that nobody could ever know about could come out.

After a while Buffy stood up on shaky legs and slowly left the living room without a word to carry her sister's things up the stairs and to her new room. Dawn needed time to think things over; she understood that. Hell, she would have needed some time alone if she ever ended up in the position Dawn was in now. She had a sister who could never know she was her sister to begin with.

An hour later she finally gathered enough strength to pick up the phone and dial the familiar number to Giles. Only he didn't answer, instead his answering machine picked up.

"Giles, it's me." She said quietly. "I need to talk to you." Then she hung up.

Giles would call back; she just needed to have a little patience. She knew that. Then again, she'd never been a very patient person to begin with. When she turned around to walk to the kitchen she bumped into Dawn. Startled she took a step back and met her little sister's tired gaze.

"Could…could you tell me about her? About Sam?" Dawn's voice was soft, almost uncertain.

"Sure."

Slowly she put an arm around her younger sister's shoulders and they started walking to the kitchen.

"How about we talk over some dinner?" Buffy said, offering a small smile.

"Okay."

"Pizza sound good?"

"With olives?" Dawn sounded hopeful.

"Why not," She said with a sigh, despite feeling relieved over the fact that Dawn seemed to be able to deal with the news of having another sister. After all, she could always pick the olives off.

TBC…