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| Longer, Then Forever - Chapter 9 by Demonica Mills (17 Reviews) | | abc + + + |  | | | 
Author’s Note: Look an update! Sorry that this took so long, but, um, yeah, sorta had emergency surgery. So….this was delayed…a bit…I’ll try to keep that from happening again. Special thanks to everyone who e-mailed me cheerful thoughts and to Addie Logan, my fabulous beta.
XXX
Chapter 9
Dawn kicked a stone across the street as she tried to sort out the feelings that were running through her head. She was glad that Buffy was back, wasn’t she? So why did she have all these weird feelings in her stomach? Was it finding Buffy and Spike together? Was she jealous? She’d had Spike’s attention mostly to herself all summer, except for the researching about Buffy.
“You look like a girl with a problem.”
Dawn’s head jerked up to face the girl who had spoken to her. She was the same height as Dawn with jet black hair and bright green eyes and was wearing black jeans with a black baby tee that had a large picture of cherries on it.
“Cat got your tongue?” the girl asked.
“Who are you and why are you talking to me?” Dawn asked crossing her arms over her chest.
“My bad. Thought you needed a friend, guess not.” The girl turned to walk away.
“Wait, um, w-why haven’t I seen you around here before?” Dawn asked.
“You have, you just never paid any attention to me before.”
Dawn looked confused as she racked her brain trying to figure out what the girl was talking about.
The girl sighed exasperated, “Brianna Taylor…Summers, Taylor…Come on, I’ve sat behind you for the past three years, not that you’ve noticed.”
“Oh, I’m…sorry…” Dawn started.
“Don’t sweat it, I mean, no one else has noticed me since I moved here. Might as well be invisible in this town,” Brianna said. “Now look, I’m tryin’ to be nice here. You look like a girl who needs to talk and I’m a girl with no friends… or life so I figure that we make a great pair…unless you have other plans.”
Dawn thought of Janice briefly before shaking her head no.
“Great, let’s motor.”
XXX
“I can’t find this bloody word in any of these books,” Giles said, slamming his book shut.
“Well, maybe we could try online?” Willow suggested.
“Under what, www.prophecydeciphering.com?” Xander asked.
“What are you doing, luv?” Spike asked, looking over Buffy’s shoulders at the pictures she was drawing.
“Oh, I t-thought that maybe drawing her feelings might help her, you know like how those psychologists have traumatized children do,” Tara said, shifting some of Buffy’s pictures around so that Spike could see them better. “They’re kinda, um, nightmarey, aren’t they?”
“That they are,” Spike murmured picking up the picture on the top of the pile. It was done mostly in blacks and grays but the face of the creature was in blue with two red dots by the mouth. “What’s that, luv?” Spike pointed at the red dots.
Buffy shivered and her hand absentmindedly rubbed over the two pin pricks on her neck.
“Rupes, see if you can find a demon matching this picture,” Spike said, thrusting the drawing over to Giles. He kept his eyes on Buffy though. She was staring out the window, her hand still over her neck.
“Eek, looks like some super primitive vampire to me,” Xander said.
“Thank you, Xander. That was so helpful. You know, I think we need more donuts,” Giles said, thrusting some money at the brunette.
Xander made a face but took the money and headed for the door. “I think they’re going to be out of jellies today for that comment,” he muttered.
Giles pinched the bridge of his nose. “Willow, have you seen any pictures that look like this?” he asked.
Willow shook her head slowly. “Um, I don’t think so. I could double check though.”
“Here, might as well check ‘em all,” Spike said handing over the rest of the pictures.
XXX
Her head hurt. She had spent the whole morning repeating everything that anyone said to her in the hopes that she would remember. A, B, C, D, E…pounding, pounding in her brain…and that thought made her giggle, but she didn’t know why and that frustrated her again. When Tara had given her the colors and paper, she had been relieved. Maybe this would help them to understand her. She drew everything that she had seen. She drew her cave. She drew Moyra. She drew the creatures that hunted her and the ones that had hurt her. She drew the creatures she had killed and the fights she had won.
The tingly feeling came back and she realized that Spike was leaning over her shoulder, talking to her. She smiled. She wished he would stay near her all the time even if it made Xander angry, which she didn’t understand. Why did he get so angry? Maybe he liked having Spike near him too and didn’t want to share…but Anya seemed to like having Xander near and…her head hurt again.
Spike was picking up her pictures, pointing at them. She shuddered and rubbed her hand over the marks from the beast in the picture he held up. That creature had almost…
“One good day,” she whispered.
Spike whipped around, nearly tearing the pictures he was handing to Willow. He began speaking quickly and she couldn’t follow him. She put her hands on her head.
“One good day,” she repeated and whimpered as Spike growled harshly.
Giles and Willow were speaking loudly at Spike, while Tara attempted to pull her into an embrace but Buffy shook her off. She stood up from the table and ran out the door.
XXX
“So,” Brianna said as she sat down on a flat rock near the edge of the park. “What’s the deal?”
Dawn kicked a stone and wondered how she was going to explain what she was feeling without giving out to much information. “Um, okay, so this is going to sound majorly weird, but…I’ve just…”
“Been feeling off lately? Hate your family? Feel depressed? Come on, there isn’t much you can tell me that I haven’t felt before,” Brianna pushed.
Dawn smiled inwardly. There was a lot that she’d felt that Brianna could probably never fathom. “Yes, yes, and yes to all your questions. It’s just…okay, so it all started…wow, almost a year ago.” A year. She was almost one year old as a human. Her mother had been gone for almost a year. “My mother…she got sick and d-died.”
“Oh, wow. That sucks. I’m sorry.”
“Um, thanks. Anyway, my dad isn’t really into family and responsibility and all that so he let my older sister, Buffy, have custody of me.”
“Your sister’s name is Buffy?” Brianna let out a snicker. “I can’t believe that you have a sister named Buffy…Hey, wait a minute. She’s not that chick that everyone says blew up the old high school, is she?”
“Yeah, that was her.”
“Holy shit! Your sister must be so badass! I mean, not only did she go all Heathers on the school, but she got away with it!” Brianna had jumped up off the rock and was pacing around it. “I bet you get to get away with so much shit.”
Dawn grimaced. “Uh, not exactly. She’s kind of overprotective, and…” She trailed off.
“Oh, sorry. Is she a complete bitch? Spill. I promise not to interrupt again.” Brianna made an “X” over her heart with her index finger and sat back down on the rock.
“Okay, so about five months ago she…” Went to Hell. “Disappeared. I mean, completely vanished and no one knew where she went.”
“Oh, wow. Did she run away or was she kidnapped?”
“Um, kidnapped.”
“Seriously? How come I never saw it on the news or anything?” Brianna asked.
“Because, um, if we reported it, then I’d have to go live with my dad and I wanted to stay here in case she came back,” Dawn answered hesitantly.
“Oh, so who took care of you?”
“Buffy’s…friends. Mostly this guy named Spike.”
“Spike? Your sister, Buffy, has a friend named Spike?” Brianna paused a second. “Is she in a gang?”
“What?! No! I mean, have you seen my sister? She’s blond and skinny, she was a cheerleader and…spring queen or whatever…she’s so…perfect…”
“And that bothers you?”
“Well, yeah. I mean, we just found her finally and I should be happy, right? I mean, this is what I wanted for the past five months. I wanted my sister to come home. I wanted us to be a family again.”
“You and Buffy and Spike?” Brianna asked.
“Yeah, I mean, he’s been in love with her forever and she never even knew he was alive, but she’s so…different now. It’s like, she’s not even Buffy.”
“Well,” Brianna said slowly. “I would think that being kidnapped would have that effect on you. Was she…abused at all?”
Dawn played absentmindedly with a strand of her hair. “Yeah…a lot…She’s like a child now and everyone is trying to take care of her.”
“Especially Spike?”
“Yeah, and-and I should be happy, right? I mean, my sister is back and…I don’t know…I just feel…”
“Angry? Jealous? Upset? Hurt?” Brianna supplied.
“YES! All of that,” Dawn answered.
“Well, that’s natural.”
“It is?” Dawn asked.
“Well, yeah. I mean, your sister was dumb enough to go and get kidnapped, leaving you to fend for your own. Then she comes back and everyone forgets that you even exist in their attempt to help her, and no one even asks you how you feel, do they?” Brianna demanded.
“Well, no but-”
“Man, people piss me off.” Brianna interrupted. She reached into her pocket and pulled out a hand rolled cigarette, sticking it between her lips and lighting it. “Want some?”
“Uh, no. I don’t…
Brianna shrugged. “Suit yourself. More for me then…Hey, wanna hang out at my house?”
Dawn shrugged and followed Brianna out of the park.
XXX
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