"My Way - Chapter Forty-One"
Author: Sydnie
Email: sydniep@hotmail.com
Buffy sat at her desk writing her final psychology paper of the year. It wasn't due for two weeks but she wanted to get it over with so she could do her part in finding Dawn. Or at least as much as Angel would let her get involved.
The baby was due in a little over a month and he wanted her to concentrate on the health of her and their son and leave finding her sister to him and the professionals. However the so called professionals had yet to turn up anything at all.
"Buffy?" Angel's voice came from behind her.
"Hi sweetheart."
He moved over to her and kissed the top of her head. "How's the paper coming?" He inquired.
She shook her head. "It's coming. It's only 10 in the morning. What are you doing home?"
He pulled a chair up next to her and and sat down.
"What's with the seriousness of your face?" She brushed her thumb over his brow.
Angel wet his lips. "We found something out a few days ago that was a little disturbing."
Buffy swallowed. "About Dawn?"
He nodded. Hank and Joyce walked into the room. They were holding hands.
Buffy's heart began pounding and her mouth was suddenly very dry. With a shaky hand, she reached for the bottle of water on the desk. After taking a few sips, she spoke. "Is she dead?"
"No, honey. We know that for sure." Joyce told her.
"How?"
Joyce and Angel looked to Hank. He had tears in his eyes.
"Daddy?"
Hank pulled up a chair next to Angel and took his daughter's hand. "There's no other way say this than to just say it. The person that took Dawnie..." He ran his hand over his face. "Buffy, my mother's been arrested for Dawn's kidnapping."
"What? ... How? ... Why?" Tears sprang to her eyes.
"We don't know yet. She won't say anything."
"How do know she did it?" Buffy asked softly rubbing her hand over her large belly.
Angel took over the story. "One of the detectives we hired ... had a hunch. When he interviewed her, something about the way she was acting made him not trust her. So, he started digging into her background. He found that she was making a lot of deposits into an account for a Virginia Winters and also she was writing several checks a year to a private boarding school in Connecticut. He used some of his contacts to find out who this girl was and they e-mailed this picture to him."
Angel took the picture out of his wallet and handed it to his wife.
The tears that had been threatening to spill, fell down her face. "She kinda looks like me. Does she know yet?"
Joyce nodded. "Your father and I are heading out there in an hour. Her headmaster has been informed of the situation and is going to explain everything to Dawn before we get there."
"So is Grandmother going to prison?"
No one said anything.
Ginny was sitting in Mr. Thomas, the headmaster's, office, staring at nothing in particular. All that kept going through her head wasn't the fact that her grandmother had kidnapped and lied to her, it was that she had a mom and dad and they were coming to get her.
"Miss Winters, I know this is a lot to digest all at once."
She nodded. "So do I have to stay here or can I go home with them when they get here."
The man was a little confused. "I ... I'm not sure. You do understand everything that I told you, right?"
"Yeah. My grandmother kidnapped me when I was a baby and sent me to live with a complete stranger. Then when I was 5, she sent me here and has basically ignored me all my life. Is that it?"
He nodded.
"So when do my mom and dad get here?"
Buffy held Meghan as best she could and rocked her.
"Buffy, let me rock her. That can't be comfortable for either of you."
She shook her head. "I need to have both my babies close to me right now."
"I understand that, but just let me hold Megg and we'll sit right next to you."
She handed the sleeping little girl to her daddy and then hugged her belly. "Dawnie must be going through hell right now. Finding out that her whole life has basically be a lie is not going to be easy for her."
Eight hours later...
Ginny was sitting in her dorm room. She had gotten a phone call from a woman who said she was her mother and they had arrived in town. She wanted to know if she wanted to meet right then or in the morning. Of course Ginny wanted to meet as soon as possible so now she was sitting on her bed waiting for a knock on the door.
The phone rang instead. It was Mr. Thomas calling to let her know that her parents had arrived and were waiting for her in his office.
She hung up the phone and raced out of her room and the dorm and towards the administration building.
As she rounded the hall corner, she skidded passed the office door. She stopped abruptly and stood for a second catching her breath. Then she opened the door.
"Ah, here's our girl now?" Mr. Thomas announced.
Ginny looked at the couple in front of her and smiled. "Hi ... I'm Ginny."
Joyce walked over to the fourteen year old girl and hugged her. "I'm Joyce. I'm your mom. And actually, your name is Dawn, Dawn Summers."
She laughed. "Really?"
Hank nodded. "I'm Hank, your dad. Your sister wanted to come too, but she's almost 8 months pregnant so it was impossible."
"I have a sister?"
Joyce smiled. "Her names Buffy. She's 19, married to a wonderful man named Angel and they have a beautiful little girl named Meghan whose 16 months old and then Buffy's having a little boy in June."
"Wow. ... So, uh, why did Grandmother take me away from you?"
"That we don't know, Dawnie. We just don't know."
Virginia Summers sat in an interrogation room with her lawyer and two police officers.
"We know you did it. We just want to know why." The female officer asked.
"Don't answer that Virginia." Her lawyer told her.
She looked at the people around the room. They were all beneath her. "I wish to speak to my granddaughter. After that and only after, I'll speak with you lot."
The End