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“Have you seen New Girl?” Xander asked his friends as he stuffed food into his mouth.

Buffy raised an eyebrow at him as she and Willow shared a look. “New Girl? I’m guessing if you’ve gone through enough trouble to give her a nickname, then she must be ‘hot’?” Willow laughed a little as Xander missed the sarcasm.

“Yep. Have you seen ‘er Spike?”

Spike shook his head. “Tragically, no,” he answered, also using sarcasm that Xander missed.

“Oh, c’mon! She’s the brunette gal with green eyes. Very nice looking…”

“Oh, you mean, Paige?” Willow questioned.

“Yeah, that’s it.”

“Oh, well, she’s in my calculus class. But she’s been here for like a week.”

“Wish I would’ve known. I didn’t see her ‘til today,” Xander announced with a sigh.

“Speaking of, here she comes,” Willow said, nodding toward the approaching Paige.

“Um, hey,” she said politely. “Willow, right? You’re like the only person I’ve met since I’ve been here, and I figured it wouldn’t be too much of a problem if I sat down?” She asked hopefully.

Buffy scooted over, allowing room for her to pull a seat up. “No problem,” Willow answered. “This is Buffy, Xander, and Spike.”

“Hey,” the new girl greeted them. Her gaze landed on Buffy for all of two seconds but Buffy saw something there.

Something familiar.

Then it hit her. It was the same strange look that Giles would give her.

The rest of lunch went by without importance. Turned out Paige was a nice girl, and Buffy found herself making a new friend already.

It was hard to ignore ‘the look’, though.

Thinking she was only paranoid, Buffy tried her best to disregard it and the table had an okay lunch.

“Hey, Paige. We’re going to the Bronze,” Xander started. “Any reason why you couldn’t join us?”

Buffy rolled her eyes and turned to Spike. “He is so flirting with her.”

Spike smiled at her whispered announcement. “Jealous?”

Buffy smiled evilly. “Maybe.”

Spike’s smirk fell instantly. “Hey!” He cried indignantly as she started to walk off.

Buffy giggled when she felt him grab her waist and begin to tickle her. “No! I’m sorry! I take it back!” Spike grinned at his victory and placed a kiss on her neck.

“Better be.”

The other students in the hallway were looking at them strangely, but Buffy and Spike just ignored it.

---

“So where’s the Buffster?” Xander asked as he and Paige came off the dance floor. Paige was smiling, seemingly having a good time.

“Dunno,” Willow said with a shrug. “She hasn’t shown yet.”

“She’s already an hour late,” Spike added, sounding more than worried.

“Maybe she forgot?” Paige offered, trying to be helpful.

“No, she--” Spike was cut off by the sound of his ringing cell phone. “Hello?”

“Hey,” came Buffy’s voice. Just by that one word, Spike could tell she’d been crying for hours. She sounded like it took a lot for her to even speak.

“Buffy? God, luv, what’s wrong?”

“I need you,” she said, sobs returning to her voice.

“Buffy, I need you to tell me what’s going on.”

“There…there was so much blood. She wouldn’t…her eyes were open Spike, but she wouldn’t blink.”

Spike was trembling a little himself now. “Buffy, pet, you’re scaring me. I need to know what happened.”

“Please just come, Spike…”

“Where are you?”

“The hospital.” That was all Spike needed to hear and he was running from the club to his car as he said his goodbye.

“I’ll be there in a minute, baby. I swear.”

---

The second Spike ran through the hospital doors, he spotted Buffy. She was sitting in the waiting room, in a chair with her knees pulled to her chest.

“Buffy,” he sighed as he pulled her up and into his arms.

She immediately responded by letting the sobs return. “She wouldn’t answer me, Spike…she was just staring and…”

It was then that he noticed Mr. and Mrs. Summers sitting on a bench opposite them. Joyce looked like she’d been crying longer than Buffy. Hank didn’t even look alive he was so pale. Returning his attention to his girlfriend, he soothingly ran his hands up and down her back.

“Here, luv. Why don’t you sit down here.” He helped her into a sit down in the chair and then took off his jacket and lay it over her. Turning from her, he looked from Hank to Joyce. Joyce looked like an empty shell, but Hank looked like he was sane enough to talk. “Mr. Summers?”

“I’ve told you before, William…just Hank.” Hank’s tone was not reassuring. His voice sounded as empty as his face was blank.

“Right…Hank. What’s going on?” Something then clicked. “Where’s Dawn?”

“They took her in there,” came Buffy’s voice and she pointed to the double doors. Turning his attention back to her, he kneeled in front of her.

“Buffy, luv…I really need to tell me what’s going on. I know it’s hard, but you have to so I can help you, alright?” She took a moment to nod and then gulped.

“Dawn was at Janice’s studying tonight…and she was supposed to walk home. It was around eight, and I was leaving to meet you guys at the Bronze. I-I got outside…and there was someone…”

“Buffy,” Spike encouraged.

“There was someone a few feet away from our house…down the sidewalk. And he had Dawn held really close. Using his…arm to cover her mouth. She fell to the ground…and he just left…” She took a deep breath. “Oh, God…Spike…there was blood all over her. And…”

“Shhh, it’s alright.” Pulling her close, he once again let his hands make soothing motions on her back.

When Spike heard a man clearing his voice, he turned to see a doctor standing there. Joyce and Hank were now fully alert as well as Buffy.

“Is she alright?” Spike asked, silently pleading for God or anyone to let her be okay.

“You may want to sit down.”

That statement was enough for Buffy to start crying silently.

“Dawn…she suffered severe blood loss…too much. We did everything we could but she--”

Buffy suddenly lunged forward, intent on killing the doctor. But Spike’s reflexes caught her by the waist. She struggled, still trying to go forward, but Spike endured the small amount of pain her nails and kicks were giving him.

“Don’t you say it!” Buffy screamed, grabbing the attention of everyone in the waiting room. “Dawn is fine!”

“I’m sorry, Ms. Summers, but she--”

“Shut up!” She was no longer struggling against Spike, but he still held her in a strong enough grasp.

“We tried, but--”

“Then try harder!” The situation and reality slowly caved in on Buffy and she collapsed into Spike’s arms.

The situation, also too much for Spike, sent him on his knees, but he still held Buffy in his arms, both sobbing out their pain.

Dawn had always been like a sister to him. And now…

Joyce and Hank broke out in their own agonizing sobs as the turned to each other for comfort.

---

“In sure and certain hope of the resurrection to eternal life
through our Lord Jesus Christ, we commend to Almighty
God our sister Dawn Summers, and we commit her body to the ground;
earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust. The Lord bless
her and keep her, the Lord make his face to shine upon her
and be gracious to her, the Lord lift up his countenance upon
her and give her peace. Amen.”

Buffy stood with a blank look on her face, leaning against an equally depressed Spike. Next to her stood Joyce and Hank: holding hands and sharing the same downcast looks.

Willow, Xander, and even Paige had come in support of their hurting friends. They were nowhere near as close to Dawn as Spike and Buffy obviously. But it still hurt to lose someone they loved.

Paige, who’d never met Dawn, only felt sad for the fact that her only friends at this school were hurting.

Family members began to file out to their cars. Friends left and soon it was only Buffy and Spike left standing there. Even Joyce and Hank couldn’t stand the pain of being so close to someone they could never hold again.

The ones who were supposed to bury Dawn went forward to close the top of the casket so that they could begin to lower her. “Wait,” came Buffy’s hoarse voice. “Can…can I have just a moment?”

The two men nodded sympathetically and moved away.

As Buffy went forward, she kept Spike’s hand held tight so he would be right beside her. “Hey Dawnie…I’m so sorry, sweetie. Maybe if I’d left a few minutes earlier, I would’ve seen what was going on or…” She trailed off when she felt Spike squeeze her hand. He didn’t want her to take the blame for this. “I love you and I hope you’re happy now.” She ran her hand over her sister’s hair.

Suddenly, something caught her eye. “What the…” She moved her sister’s hair away from her neck to reveal to jagged marks on Dawn’s neck. “What is that?” Buffy asked Spike, her confusion taking her mind away from the pain.

Spike eyed the marks for a second before taking Buffy’s hands and pulling her back. “Doesn’t matter now, Buffy.” He brought her close to hold her against him. “C’mon, we need to go now.”

Nodding, Buffy followed him out of the cemetery just as the sun disappeared over the horizen.

A/N: I know, very unexpected. Especially when you didn’t even know Dawn existed in this fic :P. But, there’s a purpose for this. Unfortunately, you probably won’t find out what that is until the second book. Hehe. I’m evil.

Paige is also going to become an important character, but probably not too important, once again, until the second or third book.

Yeah, long series ahead of us. :D





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