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You guys are amazing! I can't believe all the wonderful reviews I received. It keeps me going even if right now, I have kind of a writer-block. I don't know why... maybe it's because I'm writting the last chapters right now and I can't wrap my mind around the fact that then end is near. A little longer for you, but nearer for me. Whatever, I let you with this chapter. Don't forget to tell me what you thought of it.

Enjoy !

Chapter Twenty

The Little Sister

When the Summers girls arrived at the Hub, there was no one in sight. Buffy frowned. She went to her desk and found a note from Jack. A Weevil had gotten loose at the end of the afternoon and they were chasing it. They had decided to let her rest. Buffy groaned. She was supposed to evaluate there abilities. How was she supposed to do that if she wasn't with them? The Weevil would break them before she even had a chance!

"This place is so cool!"

The Slayer turned toward her sister. She remembered her own excitement, not so long ago. Now, she was almost used to the place. She showed the younger woman around the place, but leaving out the cells. It took her half an hour. After that, they take possession of the kitchen. Dawn raided the fridge, making herself at home. She had almost finished making her sandwich when Buffy realized just what she was putting into it. She wrinkled her nose in disgust.

"What the Hell are you doing?!"

She had completely forgotten about her sister's weird tastes.

"A sandwich," Dawn answered casually.

She watched her add the banana to her mustard and ham sandwich.

"That is totally disgusting."

"This is totally yummy. But I need to pee before. Don't touch it!"

The Slayer looked at the food like it was going to blow up in her face.

"Don't worry," she mumbled.

Dawn flew out of the room with the same energy as before and Buffy rolled her eyes. She was exhausting. All that energy was unnatural. It seemed like she was never really tired. She was always bouncing around, like a kid who had eaten far too much sugar. She shook her head then she took what was left of the coffee — cold and bitter — and started to sip it slowly, hoping that Ianto would come back soon and make a fresh pot.

She heard the team before they arrived. She listened to their heavy steps and their deep breathing. The girls were missing. They entered without the Weevil and she eyed them curiously. Jack shrugged.

"We had to kill it."

She didn't ask more. Sometimes, when the Weevils were too aggressive, it was too risky for them to go near it so they had to eliminate it. In her opinion, every Weevil should be killed but she wasn't the boss. She asked them about their missing co-workers.

"Gwen's stuck in bed with the flu," her boss answered "and Tosh is somewhere in town searching for something to update her computer."

Owen whined about how hungry he was and swooped down on Dawn's sandwich. He took a huge bite and Buffy chuckled. Stealing other's food was a habit of him. A really annoying one. But after this, he would never dare to touch someone else's sandwich. He stilled, turned a nice shade of green and gagged. He threw the sandwich on the table and ran for the trash.

"What the bloody Hell was that?!"

Ianto and Jack eyed the food curiously. The archivist frowned.

"Is that banana?"

"Yep," Buffy answered.

"With ham and," he leaned down and smelled it, "and mustard?"

"Yep."

"That's bloody criminal!" Owen exclaimed between two mouthfuls of water.

"What's criminal?"

Dawn was coming back and had heard the last phrase. The men looked at her with surprise before turning towards the blonde Californian. She was about to explain when the Key saw her sandwich. Her lips thinned, her eyes narrowed and she glared at them furiously.

"Who touched my food?"

"That's not food!" Owen exclaimed. "That's poison!"

She sent him her best death glared and he shut up.

"Did anyone ever tell you that stealing someone else's food is rude?"

Buffy burst out with laughter and Ianto smiled widely. The Captain looked at his doctor.

"That's funny how everyone who meets you thinks you're rude. But that's not the point. Buffy, who's that?"

"Kate's injured. Meet my sister Dawn. She's replacing her."

Jack looked at Dawn and the young woman blushed. Buffy heard her mumble.

"Engaged, Dawn. You're engaged."

"So, you're the infamous sister," said Jack while offering his hand.

"You heard of me?" she asked.

"A little."

Owen surprised them all by speaking up.

"You're the one who kicked your own sister out of your own house in the middle of a war."

"Owen!" Buffy exclaimed, wide eyed.

Dawn's face darkened in shame. Jack and Ianto shared a look. There was a strange hint of anger in his voice that shouldn't be there. Because Owen didn't care for other people. And for being so angry, you had to care at least a little.

"No, that's fine," said the Key. "I kind of deserved that. And even if I don't see how it's any of your business, know that we talked about that and we're trying to deal with it. So mind your own business!"

"It is my business! You're going to work with us. How am I supposed to rely on you, knowing that you turned your back on your own sister? You're not someone to trust."

Buffy saw tears of anger, hurt and shame appear in her sister's eyes and she felt something she had not felt for a while now: the urge to protect her, to take away her pain. But at the same time, she didn't want to interrupt Owen and start arguing with him. Because she sort of liked his reaction. Even if they weren't a couple — even if they still got on each others nerves — they still shared something. They cared for the other in their own way, using each other to ease their personal burdens for a little while. It reminded her a lot of what she had had with Spike. And she liked that. So, she opted for something else. She put a hand on his arm, gathering his attention, and just whispered.

"Stop."

At the same time, her eyes were thanking him for his defence of her. He looked one last time at her sister then nodded at Buffy then disappeared into his medical bay under false pretences of work waiting to be done. The blonde caught her sister's arm and declared she was going to show her what they had on the case. The remaining men looked at each other, frowning.

"Did you just see the same thing as me, Sir?"

"I think so."

"Is he going to sleep with every woman who joins the team?"

"We actually don't know for sure if they slept together."

Ianto lifted an eyebrow. Jack sighed.

"Okay, there was definitively a sex vibe."

The archivist shook his head and left his boss. Jack thrust his hands into his pockets and made his way over to the Summers sisters. He stayed at a distance and observed them. Physically, they were completely different. The only thing they shared was the pale skin. Otherwise, Buffy was small, thin, blonde with hazel eyes, while Dawn was tall, all curves with long dark hair and vibrant blue eyes.

He watched her for a while. The Slayer kept her distance, flinching when her sister touched her. She didn't seem to be aware of it because guilt flared on her face every time she realized what she was doing. It was proof enough that their relationship wasn't at its best. Her desk was buried under everything they had gathered on the ritual case.

"Buffy," he interrupted. "Can I talk to you for a minute?"

She walked towards him and he indicated his office with a nod of his head. Once inside, he closed the door and looked at her.

"Are you okay?"

"I think so."

"Did you expect your sister to come?"

"No, but she always does what she wanted. And maybe that's for the best. I mean, she's right: we share the same blood. I don't know if we can forget what happened completely. But we can always try to patch it up."

"Are you sure you want to do this?"

"I don't know. It's not like I had time to think about it. She turned up without warning. Now she's here and I need to deal with it because she's not leaving."

"If you want me to send you on an assignment somewhere else, just ask."

"Thanks. Can I go?"

"Of course."

She didn't join her sister. Ianto was nowhere to be found but that was often the case. He was somewhere in the Hub, doing whatever had to be done. Tosh was not back from her shopping trip. She went to the medical bay to find it empty. She made her way to the underground and to the cells. She found him exactly where she expected him to be. In front of Janet's cell. He was so predictable. He didn't look her way when she came towards him.

"Thanks for earlier," she said. "They wouldn't understand it but thanks."

"Why is she here?"

He was nearly groaning.

"After what she's done! You should have kicked her out."

She smiled a little at that and it was not joyful. There was something sad and disillusioned about it. She shrugged.

"She's my sister. In our line of work, if I pushed her away now, I could be dead before trying to work things out with her. So, it's better to do it now. Or try to at least."

He looked at her like she had suddenly grown a second head.

"That's bullshit. She hurt you! You can't trust people who turn their back on their own blood."

She sighed in resignation.

"What should I do? Stay mad? Hurt her like she hurt me? What's the point? We're not in high school any more Owen."

He threw his hands in the air and nearly yelled at her, "How do you do that?"

"Do what?"

"Act so blasé. Like it doesn't matter!"

She frowned. "What do you want me to do? Hold a grudge? Stomp my foot and pout?"

"Yes! I want you to be angry. If it wasn't for this case, I wouldn't have known that you could feel anything. It's like nothing matters to you. Even after all these years I've worked at Torchwood, the simple idea of losing someone or failing a case made me so sick — so angry. But not you. You just shrug it away."

She looked at Janet and watched the Weevil back up until she found herself trapped against the wall. She took a defensive position and stared at Buffy. The Slayer tried to organise her thoughts. When she knew what she wanted to say, she began

"Before I died, I was so full of passion. I wanted to save everyone. Each person I lost, each time I failed, it destroyed a little piece of me. Then after I died, I didn't care about anything except my anger, my hate and my pain. It was a living Hell. I was supposed to be a sister, a friend, a woman and a hero. I couldn't be all that so I neglected all of them. I was a poor excuse for a sister. I wasn't there for my friends. And I mixed the last two by having sex with a vampire that used to try to kill me. Being the Slayer was what I understood, it hurt less."

She crossed her arms over her chest as if she was cold and let out a cynical laugh.

"But I was wrong once again. The First taught me the biggest lesson of my life: I don't matter. I'm no one. I'm just a link in a big and infinite chain. The goal is not to erase all enemies or threats. It's to preserve the balance of the Universe. I won't make a difference. History won't remember me. I'm just a tool. So I'm going to do my time and another one will take my place."

"But you changed the way the supernatural world works by calling more than one Slayer."

"I disrupted the balance and by doing it, I created an opening for the opposite team. They will be stronger too. It's just a matter of time. That's the way the world works. We can't do anything against it."

"You're so calm about it."

"I can't do anything more and I've accepted that. I won't say it's not hard. Sometimes, I'm on a case harder than others, like this one. And it makes everything worse because the feelings I tried so hard to suppress most of the time come back in full force and become my worst enemies. When they resurface, I tend to be a little self-destructive. I sway on the edge for a little while, getting the Hell beat out of me, having sex with people I never would otherwise. Then I find my balance again."

"That's not really healthy."

She smiled brightly at him.

"I'm bloody crazy, have you forgotten?"

In her cell, Janet roared. Buffy faced her. She hated to see them trapped like that. She preferred to kill them. Holding them like that was criminal and it reminded her too much of the Initiative. She put a hand on the transparent wall and hushed reassuringly. The alien seemed to calm down.

"They were never that receptive to anyone else."

"I'm a beast. Like them."

"You're not."

"We're all animals, Owen."

She felt hands on her hips, then the doctor's body pressed against her back. She closed her eyes. She didn't like him but she understood him a little more. She knew his anger because she had felt it before. One day, he would overcome it like she did. But now, he was giving her something she had craved for, something that made her feel alive... She tried to keep a clear mind.

"You know, you seem to sleep with every woman who works for Torchwood. Except Tosh."

"She's not my type."

"Or maybe you care enough for her to not want to hurt her."

"I don't care for anyone."

His mouth was on her neck now, his tongue doing wonders. Her breath was becoming shorter, her heartbeat quicker and it was harder to think. His left hand slipped into her top, caressing her bare skin before cupping her breast and she gasped, arching against him. She tried to remember that she was in a dark underground, surrounding by cells full of aliens. But the idea was slipping away, not really relevant in this situation. After all, she had had sex with a vampire in the basement of a crypt in the middle of a cemetery. So was it really worse?

When Owen roughly turned her around and slammed her against the wall, she decided it wasn't worse. When his mouth captured hers in a hungry and wanting kiss, she decided to stop thinking about how it was wrong and how Tosh would be mad at her when she discovered everything. When his hand found its way into her panties, she decided to stop thinking at all.

Neither one of them noticed the retreating shadow of Ianto Jones.

¤ ¤ tbc ¤ ¤