Chapter 8:

New York, 2 days later, Blueford Hotel.

If it was one thing Dawn never would have expected, it was having Faith Lehane pop up at her hotel room at 7 AM. But the moment the key recognized her, she knew without a doubt that the Scoobies were coming to drag her ass back to Cleveland and Faith was there to give her the heads up.

"How long?"

"A few hours at the most." Faith replied. "If you need to do anything, now's the time to do it."

"You mean like say goodbye to Elliot?" Dawn said bitterly as she turned and walked straight back into the room, throwing her suitcase open on the bed to start to pack.

"Yeah."

For a few minutes the younger girl busied herself by packing, before pausing, a question coming to mind.

"Why didn't you just call?"

"I didn't know what you'd wanna do." The slayer finally stated after a moment of silence.

"What? You thought I was going to run?"

"Maybe."

"I'm not stupid. They'd find me all the same."

"One's rarely ever clever all the time D."

"Talking from experience?" The bitterness was evident in her voice.

"Stop being bitchy. I'm on your side, remember?"

The words made Dawn flinch. She'd fought to be seen as a grown up for so long, and here she was, reverting back to her days as a brat.

"Sorry."

"Don't worry about it." Faith leaned against the wall, crossing her arms in the process. "Now you better hurry or we won't be able to hit Starbucks before you meet Elliott."

"Starbucks? You that desperate for coffee? Dawn joked as she quickly threw on a pair of jeans and sweater.

"Damn straight I am, I haven't slept for like 36 hours." Faith paused for a second before grinning. "And for some reason I don't think you'd like me falling asleep at the police station."

"You do that and I'll never smuggle beer to you when in the hospital ever again." Dawn threatened, but with a small smile on her lips.

***

20 minutes later the pair was off after having completed the necessary paperwork to check out. Another 15 minutes and they found themselves at a Starbucks close to the 16th precinct, waiting in line to order while stressed out locals buzzed around them.

The two waited in silence till they got their coffee and left the store.

"You know," Faith finally said as she took a zip of her coffee. "you could always hide out here for a while."

"Please, like that would work. Wills would find me before I had time to blink." Dawn looked away, a look of sadness passing her face. "They don't understand you know? No matter how hard I try it's like I'm still a 14 year old brat in their eyes. And hiding, that'd just confirm that to them."

"Yeah." For a moment Faith was quiet. "I'm sorry I couldn't keep them away."

"It's alright." Dawn sighed. "You tried. I kinda figured I wouldn't have much time. I'm surprised I got as much time away as I did."

"You figured out what you're going to tell him?"

"Elliot?"

"Yeah."

"The usual. A crisis at work or whatever." Dawn met the slayer's look as they passed the street. "But he'll ask questions I think. Or rather, I know he will. I just don't know what to answer to those."

"You could say it's classified."

"But that'd raise more questions, wouldn't it? Especially with me being this young. It wouldn't make sense for him." The brunette snorted bitterly. "The Scoobies were right about this being problematic. Perhaps it was a bad idea. I just… I couldn't help it. I wanted to see him so badly, and now, when I have, " Dawn blinked away the tears threatening to fall. "now I just want more time with him."

"It doesn't have to be final. You can see him again when the others have calmed down a bit, seen some reason…"

"I told myself I wouldn't. I told myself this would have to be enough. I know we have to keep our secrets, I know that I can't tell him about them. And if I keep in touch with him, he'll want to know. He'll see through whatever lies I tell him and he'll start to doubt it all. Even Buffy being his daughter. I can't let that happen. I won't let that happen."

TBC…