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Author's Chapter Notes:
The Halloween and Thanksgiving '113 Times' fics are coming, I promise--who knew the holidays could get so busy....

The next chapter (or technically the second part of this one, since it's Nine B) will be posted Tuesday :-)
Chapter Nine

“So basically you’ve got nothing?”

“Well I wouldn’t exactly put it like that,” he sounded nervous she noted.

“Then how would you put it Giles?” Maybe she couldn’t beat anyone up at the moment but the Slayer could still be scary as hell if she wanted to be.

“It’s just going to require some more research.”

“Yeah, Buffy,” Willow jumped in, “I mean, we’re probably right on top of it and will have the answer in no time at all. Right Giles?”

“Yes, quite right, Willow.” He said the words but Buffy didn’t believe them because she was sure that he didn’t even believe them himself.

“Well fine,” Buffy was becoming more worried the longer it took them to come up with something but still tried to act strong—Dawn was after all sitting just a foot or two away on the sofa, “you guys just keep up the research.”

“Of course,” Giles agreed. “Shall we also continue to patrol for you?”

“Yeah,” Buffy acquiesced with a big sigh; she hated not being able to do anything. “Just keep me up to date with what’s out there?”

“Don’t worry,” this time it was Xander—who had been silent for the rest of their meeting—trying to reassure her, “we’ll keep a pie chart or something.”

Buffy wanted to point out that that didn’t even make any sense. And she wanted to tell them to stop telling her ‘don’t worry’; she was damn well going to worry no matter what they said. This wasn’t exactly a worry free situation she was in here. But again, Buffy kept silent, not wanting to burden her friends any more.

“Maybe a line graph would work better?”

“So, everyone is up to date then?” Giles stopped their potential conversation and Buffy was secretly grateful to him for it. Having the three of them there and doing all this talking was wearing her out. And not for physical reasons.

“I think so,” Buffy said. “Thank you, Giles. You guys too,” she thanked her two friends.

“Don’t worry, Buff,” there it was again, “we’re all just happy to help—Anya too. It’s too bad Riley’s not here to help…Ow!”

‘Well,’ Buffy thought, ‘at least Willow gets it.’ She wanted to remind Xander that Riley had left her and was not going to be coming back, but she didn’t even bother; nor did she bother to suggest that maybe they should ask Spike for help. Sure he’d give it if they asked but she knew they’d never actually ask—not even if she requested it. Stupid prejudices. ‘Yeah, Buffy,’ she reminded herself, ‘stupid prejudices that up until just a short time ago you shared.’

“So, I’ll see you guys again in a few days?” It was going to be at least a week, that she knew, but saying ‘a few days’ just sounded better.



Xander, Willow, and Giles had been gone for just over an hour when Dawn got home from school. “So did they have anything?” she asked as soon as she saw Buffy, her voice eager and hopeful.

“Not so much,” Buffy sadly informed her. “But don’t worry, they’re still looking.”

“You know, you tell me not to worry one more time and I might just yell at you. I might be fourteen but I’m fully capable of knowing when to worry—you saying it’s not going to stop me.”

“I know,” Buffy smiled at how like her, her sister was, “Sorry. Guess I’ve just been hearing it enough that I started saying it. Try not to worry too much though? Giles and Willow are good at the research thing, they’ll get it sooner or later.”

“I guess…Hey, where’d you get the bear from?”

Buffy had expected to have to explain the teddy bear, her now constant companion, to her friends but they either hadn’t noticed or hadn’t wanted to ask. But Dawn was giving her the chance to tell.

“Spike gave it to me.”

Dawn was surprised by how happy her sister seemed about that fact. “Really?” was all she could think to ask.

“Yeah…Just yesterday actually.”

“While I was at the gallery with Mom?”

“Yep,” Buffy was smiling, something Dawn had missed.

“Was kinda sunny then,” Dawn reminded her sister hoping that she wasn’t remembering wrong; she really didn’t want to have to deal with the repercussions of what that would mean.

“Spike’s apparently big on defying that ‘vampires plus sunlight equals fire’ thing.”

“So Spike really got you a teddy bear, huh? He didn’t steal it or anything, did he?”

“Yes he did and no, he didn’t steal it. He bought it…at the mall.”

“Spike went to the mall to buy you a bear?”

“He said he thought it would make me feel better—make it so I wouldn’t be all by myself even when I was home alone.”

Dawn had known she was right when she decided, against what everyone said, that Spike really was just a sweet guy; this just proved it.

“So what’s the deal with the…costume?”

”The red sweater and the cap—which I think he said was from a batman costume—are to make it look like a vampire. My vampire teddy bear,” she smiled.

“And the bunny slippers?” Dawn wondered.

“They’re cute.”

“Well obviously, but how do they fit with the whole vampire bear thing?”

“They don’t…Spike thought they were cute.”

”And he told you that?”

“Not very willingly,” Buffy couldn’t believe just how much Spike was surprising her; she still thought he was evil—hello, vampire without a soul—but she was starting to think that there was more to him than that. Either that or he was just doing all of this to suck up—she wanted to not believe that one…so she didn’t.

“I’m going to go start dinner,” Dawn decided after a few moments. “Do you think you’ll be eating anything?”

“I don’t know…I’d like to try but don’t go through too much just to make sure there’s some for me.”

“Okay…I’ll leave you and Dracula Bear to your resting.” Dawn headed into the kitchen to figure out what she could make for dinner. She wasn’t supposed to do it, she just figured that since Buffy couldn’t and by the time her mother got home later she’d be exhausted, that it would be easier for her to do it.

“He’s not Dracula!” Buffy called after her sister, “He’s named William!” It was then that Buffy realized she was keeping what the bear said whenever you squeezed it, a secret from everyone.



Dawn had prepared an actually very good dinner of grilled cheese and tomato soup. Buffy knew, but didn’t acknowledge that it was because she seemed to feel better when she drank things—even soup—than when she ate things (maybe it was why how they told you to drink ginger ale when you had the flu--maybe liquids were better somehow for nausea). But the grilled cheese was good for Joyce and Dawn to have as well. Dawn, despite her young age, seemed to be dealing with things better than just about anyone else—not making a big deal out of things but taking it all in and doing what needed to be done to make everyone feel as good as possible.

When she was feeling better, Buffy was going to have to thank her for that.



TBC....





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