Dawn awoke the next morning not quite sure where she was. It wasn't her bedroom in the flat in Rome...then she sneezed and remembered. She was in L.A., in one of the hundreds of rooms in Angel's rather dusty hotel. And how weird was that - Angel owning a hotel? She'd heard about it, of course, but seeing it for herself was something else. Talk about needing space.

She got out of bed and padded over to where she'd left her suitcase. She hadn't even brushed her teeth before falling into bed the night before, and she felt gross. One hot shower and thorough cleaning-up, and she felt more human again. Not quite ready to face the morning and the motley crew now inhabiting the hotel, but she knew she didn't have a choice about that. And she did wonder what Buffy was wearing. The clothes she'd arrived in had been covered in demon slime the last time Dawn had seen her, and she couldn't wait to see if Buffy had raided Willow's or Faith's suitcase.

A little of both, it turned out. Buffy was wearing black leather pants and a shirt Faith wouldn't have been caught dead in. On anyone else, the outfit would have looked ridiculous, but Buffy managed to carry it off. She didn't like it, though.

"I don't see why I can't go shopping," she was saying as Dawn walked down the stairs into the lobby. "I have the money, and I really hope you're not saying I can't take care of myself."

"I know you can take care of yourself, Buffy -" Angel said.

"Then it's settled -"

"Against a normal foe. This is Wolfram and Hart. The Senior Partners. They're more than you've ever faced before."

"Hello, I've faced a hellgod," Buffy said.

"And died," Angel said.

"Ouch," Faith said, perched on the front desk, and Buffy threw her a glare.

"Whatever," she said. "They threw everything they had at us last night, and we kicked their butts. They're gone, Angel."

"They're not gone," Angel said. "They'll never be gone."

Dawn headed over to Faith. "They been at it for long?" she asked.

"Just feels that way," Faith said.

"Who do you think will win?"

"B," Faith said without hesitation. "Never try to stand between B and shopping."

"I heard that," Buffy and Angel both said.

"Then settle it," Dawn said. "I'm having flashbacks."

"Hey," Angel said, but Buffy grinned at her.

"You want to come shopping, Dawn?" she asked. She seemed to be taking for granted that she'd won the argument.

Dawn thought about it. "Is food involved?" she asked.

"Giles is out getting donuts," Faith said.

"Oo, donuts," Dawn said.

"You're giving up shopping for donuts?" Buffy said, staring at her. "I can do donuts."

"Yeah," Dawn said, "but you can't make L.A. Rome. Everything is going to be three months old."

Buffy's face fell. "Oh."

"Hey, I'm not the one who left all her clothes behind," Dawn said. She tried very hard not to sound smug, but it really didn't work.

"Okay, you're enjoying yourself just a little too much right now," Buffy said, but her glare wasn't real. "I'm still your big sister."

"And as your little sister, I'm contractually obligated to tell you that you look ridiculous. Where did Willow get that shirt, anyway?"

"Rio, apparently," Buffy said, holding it away from herself and gazing down at it in bewilderment.

"Huh," Faith said. "I thought the Brazillians had more style."

"Trust Willow to find the -" Buffy's eyes suddenly widened "- most interesting clothes in the city."

"There's a story behind that shirt," Willow said, and Dawn turned to see her coming down the stairs and smiling at Buffy. Kennedy, who was supporting her as she made the descent, was glaring instead of smiling. "It involves a parade and several bananas, plus a strange demon that shot glitter out of its ears - at least, we think they were its ears...and you don't want to hear it right now." She sat down on the weird pouf-shaped sofa that stood in the middle of the lobby. Angel, who had collapsed there after he'd lost the argument with Buffy, didn't even blink. "It's a sentimental shirt."

"That glitter cut like glass shards," Kennedy said.

"I'm glad you feel sentimental about the shirt, Will," Buffy said. "And I'll give it back to you as soon as I find something more me to wear."

She didn't even look at Kennedy as she headed towards the door, though she touched Willow on the shoulder as she passed her. When she reached the door, she almost bumped into Giles.

"You're eagerly awaited," she said, and headed out into the sunshine.

"You don't want donuts?" Giles called after her. "I got jelly."

"She's going shopping, G-man," Faith said, hopping down off the desk and relieving him of several boxes of donuts. "I'll take a jelly, though."

"Just save one for me, and don't call me that."

"How's Gunn?" Dawn asked through a mouthful of powdered creme. "I must have had monster jet lag, 'cause I don't really remember anything after we came in here last night."

"Spike and Illyria took him to the hospital," Angel said. "Spike called about an hour ago - he's still in the ICU. They're going to stay until they know for certain he'll be all right. It would have been close, anyway, but...I don't think it would have been so bad if one of the wounds hadn't been right where Wes shot him."

"W-Wesley shot Gunn?" Giles said. He had a small blob of jelly on his upper lip. "Wesley Wyndham-Pryce? On purpose? Is that why he's not with you anymore?"

"Wesley's dead," Angel said, looking as hard as Dawn had ever seen him. "He died killing a member of the Circle of the Black Thorn."

"Good Lord," Giles said.

"Wesley's dead?" Faith said. She put down her donut and slumped against the desk. "Damn."

"Why would Wesley shoot Gunn?" Willow asked. "I mean, he said he'd gone to a dark place, but still..."

"Gunn did something that led to Fred's death," Angel said. "And Wesley..."

"Wait a minute, Fred was right here last night. I mean, yeah, she was blue, and I didn't know she could fight like that, but it was Fred," Willow said. She stopped and looked uncertain. "Wasn't it?"

"No, that was Illyria," Angel said. He slumped down into the pouf and assumed full-on brood position. "Illyria was -"

"An ancient god-king," Giles said. "A member of the original race of demons, who ruled the earth prior to the advent of mankind." He took off his glasses, polished them, and put them back on, while the rest of them watched. "I feel the need to quote Xander: How? What? How?"

"That's more or less correct," Angel said. He glared at Giles, but it was a tired glare. "I do wish you'd told me that when I called you for help...anyway, some of Illyria's acolytes managed to get it out of the Deeper Well and into Fred." He leaned forward with his elbows on his knees and spoke to a spot on the floor some distance in front of him. "It ate her from the inside out. She died...horribly and in great pain. Her soul is just...gone. And then we had Illyria, who could kill us all without breathing hard. In fact," he added, looking up and meeting Giles' eyes, "she did kill us all. But then something happened with the timeline -"

"'Cause that always goes well," Dawn said.

Angel looked even more pained, then shook his head. "Actually, this time it did - it let us get through to her before she killed us. Wes was able to syphon off most of her power before she exploded. Which would have taken out the greater L.A. area, at the very least."

"Where'd he put it?" Willow asked. She'd been looking shaken from all of Angel's revelations, but she perked up at that.

"A pocket dimension," Angel said. His mouth continued to move after that, but Dawn couldn't hear what he was saying. She looked around to see if anyone else was having the same trouble, but then was hit with a pain so intense and blinding that she gripped her head in panic and fell over. She could vaguely feel someone's hands supporting her and worried voices all around, but all she could see were strange, disjointed images flashing behind her eyes, and all she could do was try to endure the pain.

It finally and slowly began to subside, and the first thing she saw when she could open her eyes was a pad of paper and a pen. She squinted against the blinding white light reflected off the paper and saw that Angel was the one holding it out to her, his expression a mix of concern, understanding, and...elation? She thought that rather odd, but was also finding it difficult to think, due to the still mind-numbing pain.

"What did you see?" Angel asked, his voice sounding much too loud and also more hopeful than the question seemed to warrant.

"What?" she asked, feeling exceptionally stupid.

"The vision," Angel said. "What did you see?"

"That was a vision?" Kennedy said. "It looked more like she was having a seizure."

"Hush, sweetie," Willow said, and Dawn could have kissed her.

"It did look painful," Faith said, and Dawn realized that she was the one who was holding her, and that she must have prevented her from falling off the desk, since she wasn't on the floor and the only pain was in her head. "Why would a vision hurt so much?"

"Angel, why do you think Dawn had a vision?" Giles asked.

Angel ignored them all.

"Dawn," he said, sounding his most serious now, though the elation was still lurking. "It's very important that you tell me what you saw. It's probably a matter of life or death."

"Isn't it always?" Faith said.

"Yeah," Dawn said to both of them. "It is. There's something hatching...underground...in a cellar." She put both hands over her eyes and tried to focus through the pain. "514 North Pine. It's purple."

"The hatching demon?" Giles asked.

Dawn wanted to glare at him, but it would have hurt too much. "The house," she said.

"Shouldn't be hard to find," Angel said. "Faith, Kennedy, you're with me." He headed towards the interior of the hotel, only stopping when he realized neither Slayer was following him. "Aren't you coming?"

"Maybe if you said what's going on," Faith said.

Angel put his hands on his hips. "Dawn had a vision of something bad happening. I need to stop it. I can do that better if I have Slayer back-up. What more do you need to know?"

"Back-up?" Kennedy said.

"To begin with," Giles said, "how do you know that was a vision? It's clear that Dawn saw something, but what makes you think you know what it is?"

"Because it looked just like Doyle's and Cordelia's," Angel said. "Look, Giles, I don't have time for this. I'll explain everything when I get back, but now I need to stop this thing from hatching or kill it if I don't get there in time. Faith, Kennedy, come or not - it's up to you."

"Giles?" Faith said. Dawn managed to open her eyes and saw her looking at Giles with her eyebrows raised. She clearly wanted to help Angel, but just as clearly, she'd stay where she was if that's what Giles thought was best. Dawn wanted to scream at her to grow her spine back, but that would have hurt too much.

"Oh, very well," Giles said. "Willow and I will look after Dawn. We will discuss this when you three return, however."

Angel actually rolled his eyes at him before leaving, which surprised Dawn. He'd always treated Giles with respect before, at least as far as she remembered. And surely any resentment at the mistrust shown him when he'd worked for Wolfram and Hart would have disappeared after they'd come so spectacularly to his rescue.

"Dawnie, what can I get you?" Willow asked. She moved to take the place supporting Dawn that Faith had vacated.

"Just a buffered analgesic," Dawn said. "Or six."

"Oh, honey, Xander would be so proud of you - geeking through your pain."

"Actually, that one's from Andrew," Dawn said. She sat up straighter and rubbed the back of her neck. "He kept trying to get me to help with that dumb game that went nowhere. And it didn't even have any pictures."

"Watch it, buster," Willow said. "That game's a classic."

Dawn rolled her eyes, which amazingly didn't hurt much.

"What did it look like?" Giles asked.

"I told you," Dawn said, still rubbing her neck. "It's a really old game - it didn't look like anything."

Giles gave her his patented exasperated look. "The demon, Dawn," he said. "What did the hatching demon look like?"

"Oh," Dawn said. She hopped off the desk. "Time to hit the books?"

"Oo," Willow said, standing up straighter. "Research time?"

Giles studied them for a moment, then smiled down at his shoes. Willow nudged Dawn, and they shared a grin before he looked back up.

"Only if you're up to it, Dawn," he said.

"I'm okay," Dawn said, and she really was. "One hundred percent pain free."

"Indeed?" Giles said and looked at her keenly. But then he was off and running, fetching the books he'd brought from England from the back of the SUV, getting them set up around a big desk in an inner office, and then, when he realized that there was nothing that could brew tea in the hotel, heading back out to the donut shop for some.

It quickly became obvious, though, that Giles had brought the wrong books. He'd brought books about demons, of course, but they were all about demons that tended to congregate on the Hellmouth, not ones that hung out in cellars in Los Angeles. And most of the books were strictly about the Hellmouth, with demons, hatching or not, only mentioned in passing.

"Why did you bring all these, Giles?" Dawn asked, finally giving up and laying her head down on the desk. Her headache was completely gone, but she felt like she hadn't gotten any sleep for weeks. Though that might have been the jet lag.

"Did you think the Hellmouth might have been erupting here?" Willow asked.

"It was a distinct possibility," Giles said. He took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes. "With all of the mystical energy used to open that portal, the Hellmouth could easily have been drawn here."

"But it's not, right?" Dawn said. She raised her head from the desk and stared at Giles. "It's not happening." She could hardly conceive of the damage the Hellmouth could do to a huge city like L.A.

"It doesn't appear so," Giles said to his glasses. "Which means we're no closer than we were before."

"Don't say that, Giles," Willow said, whining a little. I don't know how much more of Rio I can take."

Giles put his glasses back on and looked at her in surprise. "It thought you liked it there."

"Oh," Willow said. She looked down at the notes she'd been taking. "I don't know."

"Well, I'm much more up for going back to Rome now that Buffy's broken up with the Immortal Doofus," Dawn said.

"She...she did?" Giles said. He looked like he was trying not to smile.

"'Bout time," Willow said, not even attempting to hide her grin. "I thought she seemed different," she added. "I think a happy dance is in order."

"Yeah, it's all good," Dawn said, allowing herself a few bobs of the happy dance - the seated version - then slumping back down into her chair. "Can we get back to the important stuff? Honestly, Giles, if the Hellmouth hasn't come back up by now...maybe it's never going to."

"The signs are pointing to an eruption in the near future," Giles said, ignoring the rolling of eyes of both Dawn and Willow.

"How long?" Willow asked, and Giles gave her his gentlest look.

"I simply don't know," he said.

They all turned back to their books after that, even though they suspected it was futile, and they were still at it when Angel, Faith, and Kennedy returned, once again covered in demon goo. Orange goo.

"Guess it wasn't purple," Dawn said.

"The house was," Angel said, wiping off his battle axe with a towel he must have grabbed along the way. "Good work, Dawn."

"Hey," Kennedy said. "We did the work."

"I think Dawnie gets some credit for having the vision in the first place," Willow said.

"Not to mention the interpretation," Angel said. "And on your first one, too. I'm impressed."

"First?" Dawn said, ignoring the probability that it really wasn't the first one to focus on what was important. "I'm going to be having more of those?"

Now the look Angel gave her was more sympathetic than elated, though he still looked weirdly satisfied underneath it.

"If I'm right, it does," he said, and he sounded very sure of himself. "I think you're my new link to the Powers That Be."

Several voices erupted at once, but the only one Dawn really heard was her own.

"Buffy's going to flip out."