[Reviews - 52]
-
Table of Contents [Report This]
Microsoft Word Chapter or Story | ePub eBook Chapter or Story | Printer Chapter or Story

Has been viewed 3038 times

- Text Size +




~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~



CHAPTER 2: Forgive and Forget, part 1



Dawn burst into the Summer's house calling her sister at the top of her lungs.


"Buffy?.. Buffy!!"


She dropped her heavy backpack and ran up the stairs.


"Buffy, are you there? You won't believe what just happened. These weird guys..." The brunette teenager threw her sister's bedroom door open, but she wasn't there.


"Crap. I forgot she's working today."


After missing a few days of work during the Willow's psycho killer phase, Buffy had gotten fired from the Double meat palace. But she soon found a more fitting job as a kickboxing instructor at the local gym. She was now working four days a week, and Wednesday was one of those days.


Dawn was about to close the door behind her when a red box on Buffy's bed caught her attention.


"Whooo Dawny... Jackpot!" she stopped and thought about it for a second. "Bad girl,” she said out loud to no one in particular. “you promised no more snooping around in your sister's stuff." She giggled happily, then shrugs.


"What the hell, she just had to put it away. It's like an open invitation or something."


The girl bounced excitedly on the bed before grabbing the small box full of papers. She picked one of the letters out of the box. *Ummm, this is gonna be even better than her diary* Then clearing her throat, she started reading out loud.


Dear Spike I feel a little stupid for writing you this letter knowing that you'll never read it. But there's some stuff I needed to tell you and I was hoping this would make me feel better. I never thought I'd ever say something like that to you, never in a million years, but... I miss you. More than it's possible to miss someone. I miss you since the very second Clem said: Spike is gone.


Dawn stared at the letter in her hands with wide eyes. She frantically went through the box, taking a quick look at every letters. All more or less the same. About fifty letters. Love letters to be more specific. Lots of "I miss you", "I love you", and "I'm sorry". She dropped the box on the bed and started laughing uncontrollably, holding her painful ribs.


"Oh. My. God! Buffy! THAT's what's wrong with her?!? My sister is sooo lame, couldn't she realize that BEFORE he left?"


Dawn gathered all the letters and put them back in the box. *Buffy can't do anything right. She's lucky to have me.* She thought smugly.


She ran back down the stairs, grabbing her backpack on her way out. Once outside, she stopped for a second to look at her watch. 3pm. Buffy would be at the Magic box at 6. That left her with three hours to find the address, write a letter, send the package and run to the Magic box. Piece of cake.


*Yeah, especially since no one knows where the hell he is* she thought sarcastically.


She started walking towards the cemetery. *Ok. Spike has like one friend. Clem. He HAS to know something.*


Clem had claimed to be completely clueless about Spike's whereabouts, but they hadn't insisted all that much. Maybe if she’d annoy him long enough, he'd remember a detail, something Spike could have said before leaving...


Lost in her thoughts, Dawn realized that she had made it all the way to the crypt without even thinking about it. She pushed the crypt's door open.


"Clem?" Dawn walked into the crypt, not waiting for an invitation. "Clem are you in there? I need to talk to you."


Clem climbed out of the rabbit hole, yawning.


"Hi sweetie, how's it going?"


"Oh Clem, were you sleeping? I'm so sorry!"


"Nah, that's fine. I've been up late watching the Back to the future marathon on TV. I should get up anyway. What brings you here?"


Dawn slumped down on the couch, the little box still held tight between her hands. She looked at the floppy ears demon straight in the eyes.


"I need to know Clem. You have to tell me, it's important. Where is he? I know he told you. I'm sure he contacts you sometimes." Clem kept shaking his head while listening to her pleas. "Come on! I'm sure he gave you a way to contact him..."


"No no no. I'm sorry Dawn, but he really didn't." He sat next to disappointed teenager, and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. "You know I can’t lie no matter what. If I knew where Spike is, chances are you and your sister would know by now. And that's probably the exact reason why Spike didn't tell me in the first place."


Dawn thought about it for a second, then nodded sadly. "Yeah, guess you're right." It was true that the lovable demon couldn't lie to save his life after all she thought.


"Why now Dawn? Why is it so important to be able to contact him now? If he's not here, it's because he doesn't want to come back. Don't you think."


"Yes, but I found a foolproof way to make him want to come back. The only thing is I have to contact him for that to work and you were kinda my only hope."


"Why don't you try the Watchers Council? They keep track of every famous demons and vampires. Spike is kinda famous, isn't he? He's a master vampire, killed slayers and stuff. They probably follow him very closely..."


Dawn threw her arms around Clem's neck, startling him, and kissed him on the cheek. "Clem, you're a genius"


Before he could formulate some kind of answer, she was out the door and on her way to the magic box.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


"NO! Nonononono. That is quite enough already Dawn. You have been relentlessly annoying me for an hour now. I am not going to give you the Watchers Council's phone number. It is absolutely out of the question."


"You know I'll probably find it on my own anyway." Dawn said defiantly. "Might as well give it to me."


"Well now that I know you are looking for it young lady, believe me I'll make sure it isn't around to be found."


Dawn changed the tone of her voice from defiant to pleading. "Giles, why don't you want me to call them? You don't want me to find Spike, do you."


"It is not because I don't want you to find Spike, I don't want him to be found by them."


"What do you mean?"


"Just believe me when I say it wouldn't be good for his well being if the Watchers found him now. They would most likely try to capture him and run some tests and other not so pleasant things."


Dawn crossed her arms on her chest, and gave the watcher a severe look. "Giles, are you telling me you know where Spike is? Cause that'd be pretty bad... that'd be like lying or something."


Giles sighed desperately, and removed his glasses to clean them once more. "Dawn, I trust that you can keep this for yourself..."


The girl nodded enthusiastically.


"I do know where Spike is, but HE doesn't want anybody to know... actually... he doesn't want Buffy to know."


Dawn just stared at Giles in disbelief, mouth gaping. "But... why?"


"I don't know Dawny, it seems to be a rather touchy subject. Every time I mention Buffy, he gets very aggressive, or sad, depending on his mood. And he has had quite a lot of mood swings lately so..."


"So, ok. He's upset with Buffy. I already kinda knew that. But he's not mad at me.” Dawn tried to reason with the watcher. “He left because of Buffy, not because of me. Maybe he'd be happy to receive a letter from me or something. Don't you think that would make him feel better to know that some people actually miss him? Everybody likes to know stuff like that... Please Giles?.. Pretty please?"


"Well...I, I don't see any harm in sending him something. After all, if he doesn't wish to read it, he doesn't have to. Give me whatever it is you want to send, and I'll make sure he gets it."


Dawn hugged Giles, a winning smile on her face. "I'm gonna go write him a letter, and I'll give you the package."


An hour later, she was almost finished writing the letter. She glanced at her watch. 5h30pm. *Damn! Buffy's probably on her way!*


"Giles, I'm done. What's the address?"


She taped the envelope to the box that she pulled out of her backpack.


"What is this?"


"What? This?" She asked with innocent blues eyes. "It's nothing. Just some stuff Spike left behind and he might need. He left in a rush so.. Hey, don't worry. It's nothing he doesn't want to have."


She wrote the address on the box then ran to the mailbox across the street. She was back just on time to see Buffy walking into the Magic Box.


"Hey Dawny! How was school today?"


"Well, how could I put it... schoolish?"


Buffy went to sit down next to her sister. "That bad?"


"Yep. How was work?"


"Umm.. Frustrating? Like asking Superman to teach mere humans how to fly."


"Buffy, ego..." Dawn scolded.


"Oupsi"


Giles was starting to get impatient. "Girls, training? It was scheduled for 5h30. Unless I'm mistaken, it's now almost 6pm. And Anya has to be home by 7pm today, so we don't have all night."


They made their way to the training room.


"So we'll do sword training for half an hour, then Dawn will practice aiming and Buffy, you will work on your reflexes and tumbling."


The two sisters grabbed their swords and Dawn put on some padding. That’s when something came popping into her mind. "Oh shit!"


"Dawn, Language!" Both Giles and Buffy said at the same time.


"Whatever" She turned to Giles. "Sorry, I forgot to tell you... I got attacked by three weird guys on my way home today."


"You what?!" Buffy yelled, mad at her sister for being so careless and not mentionning such an important detail earlier. "And you forgot to tell because?..."


Dawn shrugged. "I don't know. Some other stuff came up and.."


"Other stuff more important than being attacked?"


"As a matter of fact, yes. And I'm still here, am I not? So what's your point?" Dawn blew a strand of her long brown hair from her face while staring defiantly at her big sister.


"Giles! Do something, I'm gonna kill her!" Buffy pleaded with her watcher.


Giles took a deep breath to avoid strangling the two bickering girls himself, then asked calmly: "Dawn, care to tell us what happened?"


Like it was all she was waiting for, Dawn started telling her adventure.


"Ok. So, I'm coming back from school, right? And I decide to take a short cut and go through the park. You know, the one next to Jenny's house?"


Buffy made an impatient gesture for her to continue. Dawn rolled her eyes at her.


"So I'm like walking, minding my own business, when suddenly... wham! I'm surrounded. I'm like: Ok Dawny, calm down, don't show them you're scared. And I know I have pepper spray in my back pocket. It's not impressive, I know, but it could win me some time to escape. So I try to move slowly... but I can't! I can't even move my little finger, or blink or anything. So I think that's it for sure. They're gonna kill me. But they didn't. Obviously since I'm still here! They just gave me a message, then I fell unconscious for a sec. When I woke up, they were gone."


Giles and Buffy just stared at Dawn.


"What?"


"Dawn, the message?"


"Message?"


Giles sighed loudly. "Dawn, what did they tell you?"


"Oh, that! Huh.. to leave town?"


"Excuse me?!" Buffy snickered, very much insulted.


"Yeah. They said that me, my sister and our friends have to leave town, like now, or else... They'd have no mercy on us or something. And also that we couldn't stop what's to come anyway."


"That's it? No details? Nothing that could help us?" Giles asked hopeful.


"Hey! I was paralyzed by some spooky mojo, surrounded by these big guys dressed like some kind of evil lawyers, who threatened my life! You think I was paying attention to every stupid details?!?" Dawn asked, insulted.


"S'ok Dawny. Forget it. It's not like we're gonna listen to them and leave town anyway. So what's the point." Buffy tried to calm down her younger sister, pushing her long brown hair behind her shoulder.


"They did mention something about their Queen and the fall of the Hellmouth. Or was it the opening..?" Dawn added, frowning slightly.


Buffy turned to Giles, concerned etched on her face at her sister’s words. "You think this might have something to do with my dream?"


"To be honest, I don't have the slightest idea Buffy. I checked on Faith last week when you told me about the dream... and she was still safely behind the bars. Unless she's acting from the prison. But somehow, I just can't picture Faith having powerful minions."


"Well try to picture her as a Queen, it's even funnier! Oh, but now that I come to think of it, if Harmony could have minions... everything is possible!!"


"So... you.. had a dream about Faith? The psycho killer mom insisted on being nice to?" Dawn seemed worried by the idea.


"Yep. That's her all right. But don't worry Dawn, it was just a dream. She's in jail and she's staying there. Right Giles?" She looked pointedly at the Watcher.


"Hum.. sure. I don't think they took me seriously when I called, but they said they'll keep an eye on her and I gave them my phone number in case something comes up. They seemed to have problems with her on an everyday basis, so they didn't really pay attention to me I'm afraid."


"Well, as long as she's still behind the bars, with lots of huge armed guys guarding the door, fine by me." She stretched and smiled. "Ok Dawn, training, then junk food and movie theater. I feel a little mopey today, I need the entertainment."


"Which movie did you have in mind?" she asked, stretching as well.


"Don't know. As long as it doesn't involve romance, guys, horror, violence..."


"Great. I guess that means we'll just sit by the candy counter and watch the popcorn machine then."


Giles tried to stiffen his laugh without success.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


"Dawn! I'm going on patrol."


Buffy walked out of her room and into her sister's. Dawn was sitting on her bed, looking at her calendar.


"Buffy, how long does it take to send mail to Europe?" she asked her without looking up from the calendar.


Buffy shrugged. "Don't know... a week? Two maybe. Why?"


"It's just that a friend of mine moved to Europe and I sent a letter two weeks ago. I just thought I'd get an answer by now. Forget it." She put the calendar down on the bed and looked at her sister with a smile.


"So, you were saying?"


"I'm going on patrol, wanna come with?"


"Nah. My friend Kelly is coming over tonight. We're gonna have a girls night in. I'll go with you tomorrow if you want, k?"


"Sure Dawny, no problem. I won't be long anyway... not in the mood tonight."


"Be careful"


"I will. Have fun" Buffy turned to leave. "Oh, and no male strippers missy!" She added playfully.


Dawn laughed at this. "Got it. No male strippers. Only nail polish, lame movies and ice cream."


Buffy made her way downstairs, grabbed her jacket by the front door and walked out into the chilly night. She stopped for a second, and inhaled the cool air, trying not to think too much. It didn't work.


Exactly a year from now tonight, she had been dancing and singing under the influence of some demon guy, and she was about to kiss Spike for the first time. Well, technically, not the first time. But this wasn't the influence of a spell, or a thank you kiss... This was her, giving in to him. But she was not prepared for the fire this kiss would leave burning inside her. And she definitely didn't expect it to lead her here... lonely and lovesick. Last time she felt like this was because of Angel.


She stopped walking for a second.


*Funny. That name doesn't do anything to me anymore. Angel Angel Angel. Nope. Nothing at all.*


She smiled to herself. *Well at least that's one good thing. Wait. Is replacing a vampire with another vampire a good thing? *


She twirled her stake in her hand. *I'm a hell of a fucked up girl! How did I manage to survive this long?!*


As that thought crossed her mind, an incredible pain shot through her skull and she blacked out.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~





You must login (register) to review.