They were sitting in the Summers living room, discussing their options. But whatever they came up with, they were always one person short. Dawn looked at Spike, and he gave her a tiny nod.

"I can help", she said.

Everyone's head turned to her.

Buffybot started to give her the usual answer, but Dawn interrupted her:

"I've been training with Spike. I can fight."

They looked at each other, and then Buffybot crossed her arms over her chest.

"I'd like to see that. Let's say a vampire comes at you..."

Way faster than anyone had expected Spike attacked Dawn. And while Willow was still pressing her hand to her mouth in shock Dawn was already reacting. They fought each other like they had so many times over the last weeks, and then Buffybot threw her a stake. Dawn caught Spike in the middle of a move and kicked his legs out from under him, and a moment later he was flat on his back looking up at her, painfully aware of the tip of the stake pressing against his chest - as well as of the look in her eyes. She was enjoying this. Way too much.

Xander's eyes narrowed. 'Motherless son of a bitch', he thought. His fists clenched.

"Just do it, Dawn, or I will", he choked out.

Dawn jumped up and faced him.

"Why do you do that? Spike has been nothing but helpful since Buffy died. And all you have ever done is put him down."

Spike stood.

"Leave it, Dawn", he said in a low voice.

"No! I'm not gonna put up with this anymore. This is my house. Spike is my friend. Get used to it or get out, Xander."

Nobody noticed Spike slip out of the house. Xander took a breath.

"Look Dawn, I just don't like you hanging out with Spike this much. He's dangerous, chip or no chip. I know you have a thing for him, and he's just the kind of sicko to take advantage of that."

Her eyes dropped. Don't think about that kiss...she almost told Xander how Spike had refused to take advantage, but she couldn't bring herself to admit what she had done. She could feel herself blush.

"Dawn?"

Oh my God. He already had!

'I'll kill that bastard with my bare hands'.

Xander's jaw set and he left the house, trying to look calm but ready to beat the crap out of the freak.

~o0o~

Spike was almost back at his crypt when he heard a voice behind him, dripping with disgust:

"You useless piece of shit!"

He turned around and was faced with a furious Xander. Huh. The whelp did have some fire after all - ouch. Xander's fist connected with Spike's cheek, not much of a blow but enough to make him lose his balance. And Xander threw himself at him with a lot more force now, and he went down. Xander dealt him blow after blow. He tried to fight back, but all he managed was to get the other man off of him, and even that caused the chip to fire. Pain flared from the back of his head to his temples, and Xander landing another blow didn't help. He went down again, falling to his knees and trying to protect his head, but it only led to Xander kicking him. His ribs, his stomach, again and again until he fell to the ground. The last thing he heard was Xander talking about the sun coming up in the morning, and how much he hoped Spike would still be on the ground by then. And this:

"She's a little girl, Spike. How sick a bastard are you?"

Dawn. They thought...it could have been funny. Ironic actually. How could they think he'd take advantage of her that way, when all he wanted was to be there for her. It didn't matter now.

He knew he wouldn't make it to safety in time. This was it. He'd burn to ashes, hopefully unconscious when it happened. Funny thing that he'd been thinking about doing this to himself right after Buffy died...so Buffy would be his last conscious thought. Fitting somehow. And the world went black.

~o0o~

Spike woke up when someone touched his forehead. He was in his crypt, and the person was Dawn. "This can't be hell then", he whispered. Hurt.

"Spike...what did this?"

"If it had been something I could fight I wouldn't look like this."

She drew a breath.

"A human then?"

"Doesn't matter."

He sat up, but that had been a bad idea. Hurt. And he was way weaker than he had thought. Dawn gently made him lay back down.

"I woke up very early and had a bad feeling, so I came here. Found you just outside your door and dragged you in. I'm afraid I hurt you some more...but the sun was already coming up."

"It's fine, niblet. Saved my life."

"Unlife", she choked out, and the tears started to flow.

He smiled through his pain, reaching out a shaky hand to caress her face. She pulled herself together.

"I don't like you being here on your own. Anything and anyone can get in, and you're in no shape to defend yourself. Not even against something you usually can fight. I need to get you to the house. Actually you need a doctor, but -"

"I'm no safer at your house, Dawn."

"What? Of course you're safe there. There's only me and the girls and - oh my god. Did – Xander?! But why?"

"He thinks there's something going on between you and me. Guess he's jealous..."

Dawn was furious. Who did Xander think he was? But she had more important things to do now. She'd give Xander a piece of her mind later. Looking more closely at Spike she got really worried. He was so weak, and she didn't even know exactly how bad he was hurt. They needed help.

~o0o~

Dawn met Tara at the cemetery.

"Hey, I'm glad you could come."

"Sure, what's the emergency?"

"It's Spike. I didn't wanna tell you over the phone because I wasn't sure if you'd come...if you'd help us. But I don't know who else to ask. He's badly hurt."

~o0o~

Tara was summing up her examination:

"There are bad bruises on your chest and stomach andyour back, I'm pretty sure at least one rib is broken, and we don't even have to talk about your face. How's your head?"

"Hurts."

Tara gave him a look.

"Bad", he admitted.

"Nausea? Dizziness?"

"Yeah. I mean both."

"OK, I'll get some supplies from the magic shop. When did you last eat?"

"Uh, it's been a while. Not sure there's much left in my fridge."

"I'll get you some blood on my way back. Dawn, stay with him. He'd better not pass out if at all possible."

When Tara had left Spike touched Dawn's arm.

"Can you check if there's any blood left? I guess I really need to eat something."

Dawn smiled at the mixture of things she found in his fridge. Blood (very little, unfortunately), beer, milk, juice. She knew the latter were there because of her. Just like her favorite cereals had magically appeared at his crypt, along with some chocolate, and potato chips. She returned to Spike with half a glass of blood.

"Sorry, that's all that was left."

She helped him drink it, slow small sips, and then he lay back down.

"So, talk to me", she said. "Tara said no passing out."

"What d'ya wanna talk about?"

"Anything. How do you pay for that stuff in your fridge for example?"

He groaned.

"Really? That's what you wanna talk about, keeping an injured man company?"

"Well, I've always wondered..."

He sighed.

"OK, fine, but don't tell."

She frowned.

"So it's illegal."

"Not exactly."

"Not exactly?"

"I got a job. Security. At a club."

She stared at him.

"What good are you at security if you can't fight?"

"It's not exactly a human club."

Huh. She started to smile as she pictured him dealing with an unruly crowd of demon trouble makers. Oh he had to love that.

"Are you happy with it?"

"It's good money."

"Yeah but are you happy with it?"

"It's a job, niblet. It's not supposed to make me happy. It's supposed to buy me blood. And cereals."

It sounded as if he'd rather be doing something else.

"Who are you, Spike?"

"Told you, you don't wanna know."

"I'm not talking about the killer. I mean before that. When you were human."

"I got you."

She considered that for a moment.

"Oh my God. It hurts. You're not keeping it from me because it's bad, you do it because it hurts to think about it."

He turned away from her, a helpless attempt at protecting himself. She softly touched his shoulder.

"Hey. Don't be upset with me."

He turned back.

"I'm not upset. Well...not with you anyway."

"It's OK, Spike. You don't wanna talk, you don't talk."

He held her gaze, and for a moment she thought he'd start to talk if it hadn't been for Tara coming back.

She did what she could for him, equal parts first aid and magic, and Dawn made him drink some more blood. Tara had said she expected him to be better the next day, and up and running in three or four days, so Dawn finally started to relax a little.

~o0o~

Dawn had spent most of her time away from school at Spike's crypt, and making sure he ate and drank the potion Tara had mixed. But on the third day he was still weak and dizzy, and Dawn didn't like it one bit. When he finally admitted that his head still hurt she had enough, so she called Tara again, asking her to come by and check on him once more.

"There's something I didn't see the first time. Did you hit the back of your head, or were you hit with something?"

He shook is head.

"Not that I remember. Wait. I went down pretty hard – maybe I hit a rock or something, why?"

"I thought it was just a concussion, but you actually cracked your skull. I'll need a very powerful healing spell, and I need to do it fast. But it's gonna take a lot of energy from both of us. I just hope you're up to it. I could make it worse, but we don't have much choice."

Dawn turned pale. She swallowed.

"Can I do something? Anything?"

Tara considered.

"Actually, yes. If you lent us some of your energy, we might pull it off."

Spike was laying on his side, Tara's right hand hovering over the back of his head. She reached out with her left and took Dawn's hand.

"Spike, take Dawn's other hand."

She took a breath.

"This is going to hurt", she warned him.

"Great."

He looked at Dawn, and then he closed his eyes.

"Get the party started."

Tara murmured the words of the spell, a frown of concentration on her face. Dawn closed her eyes, too, but she could feel something between the three of them, like a low humming wavering, floating between their hands and Spike's head. She could hear that he was in pain. Keeping her eyes shut she tried to focus on helping him instead of feeling sorry for him. His grip on her hand tightened, bordering on painful.

"Almost there", Tara said under her breath. Spike gave Dawn's hand a brutal squeeze that drew a moan of pain from her, and then he went slack.

Dawn's eyes flew open.

"Tara?"

"It's OK. It's done, it worked, it's just been a lot for him. But he'll be OK."

Dawn felt so relieved she thought she would start to cry.

"Thank you, Tara. You saved him."

"That's OK. Just make sure he rests. And you need to do that, too."