A/N: So I've been gone for a VERY long time. Major sorry for that.

Chapter 6:

1 hour later, New York, Starbucks

They were sitting quietly by a small corner table, drinking their coffee, while other customers in the café were chattering around them, their voices seeping into the pair's non-existing conversation. Which, in the end, led to Dawn talking for the first time since they left the police station.

"I'm...ah...sorry for the quietness here when I promised to tell you about her. It's been...a long time since I talked about Buffy to an outsider."

"An outsider?" Elliot asked, his brows crinkling.

"Someone who wasn't there." She quickly explained. "When she...uh...died."

"Oh."

"Yeah." The girl sighed. "I thought it'd be easier than this. Guess I was wrong."

For a moment silence took over again.

"What was...what was Buffy like?" Elliot asked softly, looking down on his coffee.

"She was...Buffy." Dawn smiled vistfully. "She used to be a cheerleader in high school for one thing."

"Really?"

"Not something you'd really believe when you saw her later on though. She changed a lot. With Mom dying and all...it was hard. For her especially I think. With having to take care of me and all. She had to drop out of college."

"What about your Dad?" Elliot looked at her with concern. Maybe even pity, Dawn thought.

"He was never really in the picture I suppose. After the divorce, we pretty much never saw him. So when Mom died, it was Buffy and me."

"I'm sorry."

"Naw, don't be." Dawn smiled softly. "Mom was great. And so was...so was Buffy. They were the best family I could ever have."

"How did she...how did she die?"

Dawn tensed the moment the question sunk in. Logically she'd known it'd be asked. She'd practiced a million replies in front of her mirror before she left to catch the plane to New York. But it didn't stop the pang of hurt from going through her. Or stop the bitterness over knowing she could never tell him the truth.

"We were living in Sunnydale at the time." The brunette finally said.

"The sinkhole town?"

"Yeah. She uh...never made it out of there."

The reply seemed to satisfy Elliot. Though as Dawn looked at him, saw the shock in his eyes, she wondered if perhaps she shouldn't prepare a more elaborate answer. The man was a cop after all. And from the little they'd talked, he didn't seem stupid. Nor did he seem to be like the Sunnydale cops. She didn't think he'd hide from the truth. Ever.

TBC...