Guest: Sadly, I can't say I disagree. And the thing is, that wouldn't be a bad thing if it was shown as a flaw or the other characters were allowed to criticize Buffy over it. But more often than not, the Scoobies are made to seem in the wrong when they call Buffy out.

Hotel

Morning

In her bed in her room, Buffy slept uneasily, her mind tormented by memories of the past.


Slayer Compound, Eight years earlier

Buffy's held her cheek in shock, staring stunned at her younger sister, who was glowering at her. Although the red mark would heal before it bruised, it spoke volumes that Dawn had slapped her.

"How could you?!" Dawn demanded, practically seething with rage.

"I was just trying to protect you!" Buffy tried to explain, her mind racing as she wondered how Dawn had found out.

"Protection? That's how you see it? No. That's not protection, it's control. You don't know how to love me without trying to control me," Dawn said, looking heartbroken by the realization. "I'm just something for you to control."

"That's not true Dawn," Buffy said immediately but Dawn shook her head.

"No, it is. This is just like you trying to have Xander send me away before the showdown with The First. You think you have the right to make decisions for me. I'm not a little girl anymore Buffy! But you don't see that, you still think you have unilateral say on what I can do with my life. As long as you are in my life, you will never stop trying to control it. Well, I'm done Buffy. I'm done."

Dawn then turned around and walked out of the room, and out of Buffy's life as Buffy stared after her, not comprehending what had just happened.


Buffy opened her eyes, looking over at the clock. Seeing it was past six, Buffy sighed before throwing off the covers. She had no idea when Dawn was going to get here, so she might as well get in a shower while she had the time.

Peter and Dawn's apartment

Same time

Dawn opened her eyes, finding Peter looking at her from his side of the bed with an unreadable look on his face.

"Hey. What's with that face?" Dawn asked sleepily.

"Just…thinking," Peter said with a shrug.

"About what?" Dawn said as she sat up and Peter was silent for a long moment.

"You've been really cagey about why you and Buffy don't talk, and I've never really asked. But since she's in town, and we might all meet up whether you like it or not…" Peter trailed off.

"You wanna know what happened between us," Dawn said with a sigh.

"You don't have to tell me if you don't want to," Peter assured her but she shook her head.

"No, it's okay. I guess you have the right to know," Dawn said, trying to figure out where to start. "About two years after Sunnydale, I decided I wanted out of the whole Slayer business. But I still wanted to help people, so I decided I wanted to be the only job that would actually let me keep fighting, make a difference."

"A cop," Peter said knowingly and Dawn nodded.

"I put in an application for the police academy. I made the mistake of telling Buffy," Dawn said as a scowl crossed my face. "She had Giles use some of his old police contacts to have my application pulled. Would have set me back years if Willow hadn't used her magic to get me in."

Peter was silent for a moment as he considered what Dawn had told him. On one hand, he could understand Buffy's worry for Dawn, as it hadn't been easy for May to let be Spider-Man. On the other, he completely understood the sense of betrayal Dawn felt. Had May thrown away his Spider-Man suit, he's not sure he would have been able to look at her the same way.

"You know what the worst part is?" Dawn asked, breaking Peter out of her thoughts. "They all knew. Xander, Willow and Faith knew what Buffy and Giles did. Faith kind of stays out of this stuff and we were never close, so I could get why she didn't tell me. But only Willow thought I had the right to know what Buffy did. I looked up to Giles as a father and I considered Xander one of my best friends. But I realized that day that, while they may love me, they will always choose Buffy over me. And I couldn't be around that anymore."

She looked at Peter like she expected him to disagree, but he kind of got it. After everything went down with his identity being leaked, he was quick to notice that not one Avenger had stepped in to help him. Nor had Pepper Potts reached out to offer any help, having become a recluse following Tony's death. The only person who had offered him help was Strange, and he'd needed to go to Strange for help. Peter had realized then that, while Tony may have considered him an Avenger, he had never truly been one of them.

"So what are you gonna do?" Peter asked instead.

"Drop the files off, like I promised. Probably let them know what Spike found out. Then…then, I don't know. Hope I don't have too much interaction with them, that this gets solved quickly. What about you?" Dawn inquired eager to change the subject.

"Spike and I are gonna check out some demon hangouts, see if we can find anything out about this human who can control vampires," Peter said and Dawn raised an eyebrow.

"Spider-Man going to a bar will draw attention," Dawn pointed out and he rolled his eyes.

"That's why I'm not going as him," Peter said in exasperation and she smiled. "What?"

"Just…weird picturing Peter Parker in a demon bar," Dawn said.

"Well, what can I say, I'm a man of danger," Peter joked and Dawn giggled.

"I knew that when I met you. Especially when I found out who you were under that mask," Dawn teased.

"That was because you shot me in the shoulder and had to take me back to your apartment to get the bullet out," Peter said blankly.

"You jumped in the way at the last second! You shot yourself," Dawn argued and Peter rolled his eyes.

"Agree to disagree. I better take a shower before Spike gets impatient," Peter noted.

"I'd offer to join you, but I think that would traumatize Spike," Dawn said with a giggle.

"Yes, it bloody would!" they heard Spike call out from where he had slept on the couch and the couple laughed.

"I need to get ready, and so do you. I'll talk to you later," Peter said before lightly kissing her. "I love you."

"I love you too," Dawn said, returning the kiss before playfully shoving him. "Now go take a shower. We have work to do."

Peter laughed before heading over to the shower, knowing Dawn was right. It was time to get to work.

Hotel

Later that morning

Dawn stood outside the hotel room for a long moment, clutching the bag she had put the files in. She didn't move for a long moment, trying to will herself to knock. Letting out a sigh, Dawn realized how ridiculous she was being and raised her hand in a fist, knocking on the door. After a few moments, the door opened, revealing Willow standing on the other side.

Dawn fought the urge to breathe a sigh of relief. She didn't think she'd have had the strength to resist running out if it had been Buffy who answered.

"Hey Dawn, thanks for coming," Willow said as she let the younger woman in.

"I said I would," Dawn reminded her as she stepped inside.

As Willow closed the door behind them, Dawn took the room in as she saw the Scoobies for the first time in eight years.

Faith was sitting in a chair, on her phone when she looked up, seeing Dawn. A grin flashed across her face at the sight of Dawn, a grin Dawn couldn't help but return. While they had never been close while Dawn was with the Scoobies, in the years since, they had developed a close friendship, to the point Faith had confided in her of her feelings for Willow before anything happened with the witch. While she would never be Tara, Faith was someone Dawn knew she could depend on to have her back. And she treated Willow right, which was more than could be said for Kennedy.

"Hey Little D. Been a while," Faith greeted as she set her phone down.

"Since what, New Year's, last year?" Dawn asked as she tried to remember.

"You told me you were going to see the Devon Coven," Xander, who had frozen, standing by Giles in the kitchen, a spoon full of cereal frozen halfway to his mouth, spoke up as he looked back and forth between Faith and Willow.

"We lied," Faith said unapologetically.

Willow, on the other hand, glanced uneasily at Buffy, wondering how she would take this news. But Buffy hardly seemed to register Faith's words, too busy staring at Dawn like a deer caught in the headlights.

"Hey, Dawnster," Xander said awkwardly as he put down his spoon, getting to his feet, Dawn's smile dying as she turned to him, her eyes growing colder.

"Xander," Dawn greeted coolly.

Xander almost grimaced. Yeah, she was still mad.

Dawn looked over at Giles waiting to see if he would say anything. But Giles seemed, for once, to be at a complete loss for words. After a moment of waiting for him to say anything, Dawn turned her head, looking over at Buffy. A beat passed as the two sisters stared at each other.

"Buffy," Dawn said after a moment.

"Hey Dawn," Buffy said as she got to her feet. "Thank you for doing this."

"I did it because it was the right thing to do, not to help you," Dawn said coolly before reaching into her bag, pulling out the files. "Here."

Dawn walked over, holding the files out to Buffy. After a few moments, Buffy took them from Dawn.

"Thank you," Buffy said quietly and Dawn nodded.

"I should probably tell you, Spike found something last night at one of the demon hangouts in the city," Dawn said, drawing their attention. "He 'persuaded' some demons into talking. Word's going around that there's a human who can control vampires and make them kill even if they don't want to."

"Wait, you're saying that a human is doing all this?" Xander asked in disbelief and Dawn shrugged.

"That's what Spike's source said. Not sure how reliable it is, but just thought you should know," Dawn said and a beat passed. "I should be going."

"You could, perhaps, stay for a few minutes, catch up," Giles said hopefully, the first words he'd said since Dawn entered the room and Dawn looked over at him with cold eyes.

"Giles, you had four years to play dad. A little late to start now," Dawn said coldly and Giles looked like she'd slapped him. "Will, Faith, I guess I'll see you around. Good luck finding this guy, let me know if you do."

"Dawn," Buffy called out as her sister moved towards the door and Dawn paused. "I…I…thank you. For telling us what Spike found."

Dawn merely nodded with an unreadable look on her face. She waited a second longer to see if Buffy would say anything else, then opened the door and walked out. When the door clicked behind Dawn, Buffy all but collapsed into a nearby chair. She ran her hand through her hair, feeling her friends' gaze on her but ignoring it.

Why was it so hard to just try and bridge the distance? Why could she not just say the words 'I'm sorry?'

Outside the room, Dawn looked back at the door for a moment before turning and walking down the hall towards the elevator. She had to get to work.

Let's be honest, Buffy would absolutely have Dawn's application pulled, justifying it to herself as trying to protect Dawn. Buffy undoubtedly loves Dawn, but her way of showing said love is to treat Dawn as someone she can control rather than as a person with her own thoughts and feelings. Shen never really considers Dawn's opinion before making a decision that will affect Dawn.

Dawn's reunion with the Scoobies was pretty difficult to write, so I hope I did okay.

Now that the reunions are out of the way, we'll start getting into the meat of the story, starting with a Spike/Peter team up.