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“You should have seen the looks on their faces! It was great. I feel…liberated. I mean, I’m not ready to go, like, to a club or something, but I feel better. And it’s nice, to know that it *is* getting better.”

“I’m really happy for you Buffy,” Olivia said with a smile. And she was. She dealt with so many lost and confused people everyday; it was gratifying to know she was making a difference. “You ready for the big day?” Olivia could practically feel Buffy’s nervous excitement on the other end of the phone.

“Well…I mean, yeah, I’m totally for it. We got new sheets and I’m making…OK, so Will and Spike are making a great dinner, and I’m officially moved into their room, with all my clothes and things like that…which is way wiggy because it’s so final. Like, we lived together, but we weren’t really living together because I still had my room and—“

“Buffy!” Olivia interrupted, completely taken with the loquacious, rambling blonde. It was one of her more endearing habits, one that revealed far more than she intended—especially to the trained ear. “You didn’t answer my question.”

“I’m…” Buffy hesitated. What was she supposed to say? What was the right answer? “I don’t…know. Does that make me a bad person?”

“Not at all. This is a big change; it’s okay to have doubts and misgivings along with the excitement and the anticipation.” Olivia heard a doorbell ringing in the background.

“Hey, someone’s at the door, I’ll see you next week?”

“Absolutely. Have a great day! And don’t be nervous; you’ll do fine. Take tomorrow one step at a time.”

***

Will and Spike had just collapsed on the couch after spending the day making sure the guest room was perfect. They’d soon found out that Buffy’s version of perfection was quite different from their own, in the way that a hurricane is different from a light, pleasant spring shower.

Buffy had decided that her old room needed a complete makeover. So she’d marshaled her Twinlets and set about barking orders. The bed had to be completely taken apart and raised so that Dawn would have storage space underneath. So they’d had to haul the large, bulky mattress and box spring off the bed and generally working them to death…though they’d taken a moment to themselves when Buffy had walked in on two shirtless, sweaty men. That thought brought a smile to Will’s face. Not a bad trade off.

He chucked a beer at Spike’s head and slumped next to him on the couch. His body was starting to protest the strain that had put on it, but he’d lived through worse. He relaxed into the couch, sighing blissfully as he concentrated on relaxing each of his muscles one by one. He’d almost done it when the doorbell rang.

“Door,” Spike mumbled, his eyes closed and beer warming in his hand. He couldn’t even find the strength to raise the bottle to his lips.

“I got the beer,” Will protested tiredly. They each fixed each other with the one eye they could pry open, and Spike was forced to concede. With a long, drawn-out sigh, Spike pulled himself off the couch and shuffled to the door. He pulled it open to reveal a stern looking man with a pinched face and a young looking girl with long brown hair and a very distended belly.

“Ah…hi?” he ventured, suddenly acutely aware of his shirtless status. He glanced at the girl and noticed her slightly glazed over look, forcing a smirk down. The dour man was frowning at his shirtless chest.

“And you are...?”

“Sp—James. James Giles. Please, ah, come in.” Spike awkwardly ushered in the sour looking man and the starry eyed girl. Shit. Dawn was supposed to be arriving tomorrow, and they were totally unpresentable at the moment.

“Oi, sod! Who…’allo.” Will unconsciously slipped into his coarser accent in surprise. A dour looking man was frowning, his eyes darting between the two shirtless twins, and hovering over a slightly overwhelmed young girl. His eyes slid to her pregnant stomach, and he realized Dawn had arrived…an entire day early.

“There are two of you…” Dawn blurted, awe tinting her words. Spike chuckled and crossed his arms over his chest, amused when Dawn ducked her head, blushing fire-engine red. The man frowned disapprovingly and began rustling around as only bureaucrats can manage. Spike idly wondered how the man managed to sound like dry, crinkly paper when there wasn’t any in sight.

“I’m Bob, Dawn’s case worker, and I am not comfortable w—“

“DAWNIE!” Everyone’s attention was immediately drawn to a radiant looking Buffy, and Will and Spike momentarily lost all higher brain function. She looked beautiful and elegant in her emerald top that accented her eyes and her newly dyed blonde hair up in a sweeping pony tail. She was the picture of beauty and poise. Bob was sure to like her. Will narrowed his eyes. It seemed Bob did like Buffy, if the furtive looks being thrown her way were any indication. He resisted the urge to growl.

“Buffy!” Dawn launched herself at the older girl, hugging her as tight as she possibly could.

“How are you? How’s the baby? Were they OK to you at the hospital? Ohmiga, do you know the sex yet? I’m so excited you’re here! But wait…why are you here? You’re early! You’re a day early, I don’t have your linens set out, and your towels are in the washer and I—“

“Pet?” Will broke in smoothly, “James and I are going to go find a shirt, while you and Dawn and…Bob do whatever you need to. We’ll be back.”

Dawn giggled when Spike winked cheekily before disappearing down the corridor. Will made a detour to liberate their forgotten beers; they didn’t need two strikes against them. Bob watched the two men exit the room with a skeptical look on his face.

“Miss Summers, are your…roommates usually dressed so provocatively?” Bob asked. Buffy refrained from rolling her eyes and telling him it was MS.; the man sounded like her monotone tenth grade calculus teacher who had about as much personality as a dead rat, though he managed a decent amount of judgment and derision.

“Will and James were fixing up Dawn’s room; we decided to remodel it to give her as much space as possible. We bought new sheet and towels, I remember Dawn said something about liking green and blue, and we were going to get a stereo and a desk but…well…we weren’t expecting you until tomorrow.” She gave Bob a huge mega-watt smile.

“Ah, yes.” Bob at least had the decency to look a bit bashful. “We needed the beds; I thought it wouldn’t be a problem to bring her here early. This is a three bedroom apartment is it not?” Buffy fought down the urge to tell the Bob to shove his simplistic morals up his ass and that phones had been invented for a reason. She had the distinct impression he did not approve of this set up; but she also knew that this order had come down from on high, though the case worker could make their lives difficult. Which is why Buffy was giving the obliviously dull man her best “You wouldn’t fail little ole me now would you?” smile while trying to figure out how she could get out of this without alienating one of her lovers.

“Well ,you see—“

“Buffy and William are engaged. I’m just freeloading for the time being,” a voice interjected. Buffy glanced at her Twinlets, but Spike just gave her a reassuring smile before settling himself a decent distance away from her. Will’s reassuring smile and gentle squeeze telling her that they’d talked this through. Will leaned close to her on the pretext of dropping a kiss in her head.

“We played rock paper scissors.” Buffy chocked on her laugh. They would.

Will took Buffy’s hand and sent boisterous Bob a smile that just passed friendly. He ‘absentmindedly’ stroked Buffy’s arm in a way that was just a little more suggestive than it should be while Buffy got over her giggleparty and began quizzing Dawn on their weeks apart.

Spike and Will kept one eye on Bob, whose eyes kept flicking back towards the couple across the room. Will smirked when Bob started fidgeting uncomfortably; they’d come up with a tenuous plan to get Bob the hell out of their lives. Yeah, this guy was definitely lacking people skills, which begged the question of why he’d decided to become a social worker of all things.

“Oh! Oh! You so should have been there!” Dawn exclaimed, her eyes bright and a wicked smile on her face. If that smile said anything, Spike was pretty sure they might become great friends once she got used to them. “They got us out just as they were hauling Caleb and his psycho followers out. He kept trying to get away, ignoring the fact that there were like, a thousand police officers there. But he ran away and started doing this weird shuffle-run because his hands were cuffed behind his back and I think someone had done something to his leg.

“Well, he tripped, and you remember Mike? Skinny kid, tragically gay in that shy, adorable way? Well, Caleb fell down and he’s trying to get up, but he’s stuck on his knees. Mike just walks up to him, kicks him in the balls, and then walks away. Everyone’s just standing there like…what the fuck? So Caleb’s all mouth-open and amazed, then he falls over on the ground and starts screaming. We couldn’t figure out what the he—um, what in the world he was saying, but we realized he was screaming ‘He kicked me in my tallywacker! The queer kicked me in my tallywacker!’ Who SAYS that?” Buffy and Dawn started laughing, tears streaming down their cheek, while the men looked on in bemusement, Bob frowning a bit at Dawn's language.

“I always knew he was a pansy,” Buffy snorted, trying to keep her mascara from running.

“Oh, It was hysterical; we were all laughing, and the FBI dude just stood there with his arms crossed looking all stern until Caleb stopped moaning.”

Will’s hand slipped to Buffy’s knee, gently caressing the inside. Out of the corner of his eye, Bob flushed, and Will tamped down his triumphant grin, slowly sliding his hand just a little way further up Buffy’s leg. Bob was up in a flash, making his excuses and ready to leave. He shook everyone’s hands, avoided Will’s eyes, and gave Dawn an awkward pat on the head.

“Miss Summers, I’ll be stopping in randomly to do house checks and you’ll have a follow up visit in a few weeks. Dawn, you have my number, you may call me whenever you need. Good day.” And so Bob the Social Worker left as abruptly as he arrived.

They four of them stood in the door way, looking decidedly uncomfortable. Dawn’s eyes were darting from one shirtless twin to the other, her teenage/pregnancy hormones going crazy.

“So…you get both of them?” Dawn asked tentatively, giving Spike a once over. Sooooo not fair! But the three delighted laughs that resounded through the room made it better. Kinda.

A/N: I realize that I’m taking some liberalities with the whole foster care system; however, I’m definitely not with the results power can induce. So please, just let it go and we’ll have Dawn happily ensconced in the Summers/Giles family, yeah? ;)

Also, I've consolidated my Twinlets One Shots. There are a couple of new chapters there, and it's easier now that they are all in one place. So please, enjoy (BTW, they answer the question of how Will and Spike started...just FYI)

Oh yes. And tallywacker's for you, kid. HAHA!





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