Chap 12: The Truth Doesn't Always Set You Free

"He still has a palm print on his cheek," Dawn said quietly, trying to hide the giggle threatening to spill out.

"I hit him a little harder than I wanted to," Buffy murmured.

"What do you think he's talking to Giles about?"

Buffy looked over her shoulder at the two men talking in the hallway, hushed voices and stern glares.

"Dad's probably wondering why Giles is here with us and who he is in our lives, and Giles is making sure Hank doesn't forget for a second that he hasn't been here at all."

"Are you reading their lips or something?"

Buffy sighed and went back to washing the dishes. "No, I just know them."

Dawn watched her a moment, then looked back to the two most important men in her short life. A mystery father, only supplanted memories to understand him, and Giles... who acted more like a dad than she'd ever seen before.

The back door opened and a blanket-covered bulk of smoke entered the kitchen, heading straight for the shadows. Dawn rolled her eyes and closed the door while Buffy pulled the blanket off their visitor, stamping out the flames.

"WHY can't anything go RIGHT for JUST a little WHILE?" she asked, almost growling the words as she stomped.

"Nice to see you too, pet. Hey nibblet -"

"Spike, now really isn't a good time for a social visit." Buffy grabbed the collar of his leather duster and pushed him towards the basement door. "You have to go downstairs for a little while."

"Don't shove me off like that, Blondie -"

"Buffy?" Hank called.

Dawn opened the basement door and Buffy pushed, the both of them moving in front of the door and laughing over the noise of Spike's fall and subsequent cursing in their general direction.

"What was that?"

They made a show of stopping laughing and Buffy wiped her forehead. "Nothing, Hank, just a joke we've had going for a while now."

"I'm pretty sure I heard someone in here."

"There are two someones in here."

"I meant someone else -"

"There wasn't anyone here," Buffy said, her voice ringing with a note of finality. A crash sounded downstairs, followed by muffled cursing.

"There! Someone is in the basement, I knew it!" Hank looked like a Hardy Boy who'd solved a real humdinger of a mystery.

"Spike is a boarder here, and helps the girls when I'm not around," Giles said smoothly. Buffy blinked, her mouth dropping open.

"Boarder? You rent out the basement?" Hank asked, whirling on Buffy. She straightened out her face a little, trying for a smile. The only person who believed it was the only person she was trying to convince, so it worked out in the end.

"Y-yeah, he, uh, Spike that is, he's just a traveler, you know? He's only here once or twice a month and stays here when he's in town."

Spike appeared at the top of the stairs, thankfully not in vamp-face, glaring at the back of Buffy's head. "Bloody hell, Sl-"

Buffy twisted, gasping as if she were surprised, and accidentally back-handed Spike in the face. "Oh, Spike, I'm so sorry, are you ok?" She grabbed his face with what looked like concern but she whispered low enough for only the vampire to hear: "Do not call me slayer or cause a scene or I will kill you."

"I'm fine, pet" he said, swatting her hands away. "Wasn't any real sting to it, was there?" His grin didn't do anything to settle Hank's nerves.

He was, in fact, completely unnerved.

"Um, Buffy... is this your old friend from LA? I thought you said his name was Pike?"

Buffy paled at the name. She hadn't heard it in so long... and to hear it from her dad's lips, after all the badness of that time. She shuddered and stepped away from everyone in the room. "No, totally different guy."

"Looks the same," Hank mumbled. He stepped forward, hand held out, sizing up the blonde man standing in his daughter's kitchen. "Hank Summers."

Spike sniffed and looked the middle-aged man up and down, his distaste showing plainly. He crossed his arms and went for a look of cool detachment. Mostly he looked like he wanted to enact violence. Soon.

"So you're Buffy's old man? Didn't figure I'd ever see you 'round here. Last I heard you were off with a bit of alright in Spain somewhere."

Hank let his hand drop and let out a nervous cough. "Yes, well, we've already covered that tonight, but -"

"Not to mention Joyce was one of the few decent people I've met in this world. I don't have to tell you what a good woman she was. I just wonder if you realized it before or after you found out she'd died."

"Spike."

"Or what kind of women your daughters are growing into -"

"Spike!"

"Bugger this. I didn't come here to get into it with the Summers family -"

"Why DID you come here, Spike?" Giles asked quietly. Spike sniffed and nodded towards Hank.

"Nothing he needs to hear about, is it? Want to come down to the basement a tick?"

Giles rolled his eyes and went down the stairs behind Spike. Heaven knew he despised the vampire, but often the information he provided was solid.

"Buffy, I don't trust that man -"

"Don't." She turned towards him, glaring. "Don't come in here judging my life or anything I've had to do to survive here. You have no idea what my life is like." A tear welled up and spilled over. She wiped it away quickly. "You don't want to know."

"I said I was sorry, honey. I know I didn't understand, but -"

Dawn gasped, her eyes going wide. A memory - it wasn't a real memory for her, but it was something that actually happened. She knew it. "The hospital."

Buffy blinked and looked to Dawn. "What did you just say?"

"The hospital. Dad... he put you in the hospital. He said you were sick and you had to stay there until you got better." Dawn's face morphed from shock to complete anger. "You committed her? You put her away? How could you do something like that? To your own daughter?"

It all happened so fast, Buffy didn't know how it got to the point where Giles and Spike found them: Hank on the floor, huddled and hiding his face from his youngest daughter; Dawn screaming, crying, her eyes glowing and her skin pulsing, as she pulled with a reasonable amount of force against Buffy's strength; and Buffy, her face blank, face pale white, her only certainty was in knowing that if she let her little sister go, she would try to inflict real harm on her "father".