New Beginnings

By PSUBrat

Questions & Invitations

Dawn looked down at her watch and saw that she was running behind. She should call Buffy to let her know that she would be meeting up with her later than she expected. She was at the mall, again, so training would just have to wait. This was important stuff. Janice's mother had taken the girls to the mall so that they could shop for dresses for Dawn's party. Buffy had given her some money and told her to get something special. This dress certainly did make her happy and it made her feel special. She smiled to the reflection in the mirror.

"Dawn that dress is just so you," Janice exclaimed.

The silk, deep purple tank dress stopped right before her knees. It hugged her body in just the right places, showing off her curves in a way that made her look sexy but not too sexy. "I know," she sighed as she looked at the price tag again hoping it would cost less than the last time she had looked, "but it's so expensive."

"Didn't your sister give you money to buy something nice?" Janice asked her friend.

Dawn pulled her hair up and looked into the mirror again. The dress certainly did look great on her. "Yeah she did, but I didn't want to spend all of it on one dress. I'm gonna need shoes and a purse too."

Janice grinned at Dawn, "Not a problem. We'll just, you know…"

"No way! I so don't want to get into trouble again. Besides, Buffy respects me now and I don't want to screw that up. I'll figure something out."

"Dawn," Janice stated, "just remember that your party is less than two days away."

"I know. Hey, maybe Anya will let me take out an advance on my salary. Not that I have much of a salary cause I'm working off the debt, but what's a little more debt, right?"

She would ask Anya about the advance tomorrow morning. Maybe she would even talk to Giles about it. He always seemed more than willing to help her and Buffy. It was nice having a father figure around again. Too bad he was going back to England after her party. She would miss him. After taking one last look in the mirror, Dawn headed to the dressing room to change back into her clothes. The thought of Giles leaving again made her sad, but not a depressed kind of sad. She didn't like that he had to leave but she knew he had to go. She sat down on the bench in the small room and sighed. Why was it that all the men in her life always seemed to leave? Was it a Summers' curse? First their father had left them, then Angel, Riley and Giles and now Spike.

Spike had sworn he'd never leave. She tried not to blame Buffy for the vampire's departure but some days it was really hard. She missed him so much, and now, here she was turning sixteen in a couple of days and getting all of these powers she didn't understand. He should be there with her now because she was sure he would understand. He always did. No one understood what she was going through. Giles had rambled on about some lost prophecies referring to her but she had tuned him out. It was just way too boring for her to focus on. Basically, all she had heard was, "blah, blah, blah, more powers to come on your birthday, blah, blah, blah."

She wondered what kind of powers she would have next. In the last few months she had gotten Slayer strength and stamina, but not the quick healing powers. Although, she thought with a smile, I do have this really cool healing thing of my own going on. She thought about the times that Buffy had come home from patrolling with cuts and scrapes and how she had traced those cuts with her fingers, making them disappear. It was still pretty freaky, but cool. It always gave Xander the wiggins. That just made her giggle and chase him around the apartment yelling at him to let her touch him. The thought made her smile to herself as she tied her shoe.

After they finished changing, Dawn and Janice went to the register and paid for their purchases. Dawn had given in and bought the dress. It was her birthday and she wanted to look great, especially since there would be so many cute boys at the Bronze that night. She was going to have the time of her life, money be damned!

While they paid for their dresses, the dark haired, teenaged boy watched them. They hadn't noticed him following them. He had made sure of that.

***

"Buffy," Giles demanded, "you do understand that Dawn is going to have powers that we cannot even begin to comprehend?"

Buffy looked at her watcher and folder her arms across her chest defiantly. She wondered if she would be able to have this kind of attitude with her new watcher. Didn't matter. Giles was still her watcher for at least another month so she would do what she had always done, be snippy and get away with it.

"Why," she asked, "because some stupid scroll says so? Are you even sure that your buddy translated it right? Cause ya know, we've had one-word mix-ups before. And exactly what type of powers are we talking about here? Little ones? Big ones? Apocalyptic ones? What?"

"Yes. I'm quite certain that this translation is correct. I have talked to my protégé in England and have confirmed it with him. There's no mistake. As for Dawn's potential powers, we're not quite sure what they will be exactly."

Buffy laughed at him. "You're 'protégé'? Is that what you call Council lackeys these days? And why do you keep referring to him as your 'protégé' or 'the new watcher.' Doesn't this idiot have a name?"

"Buffy do be reasonable. My protégé…uhm…your new watcher… Right. What I am trying to say is that he is well versed in the language on the scrolls. I trust his translations implicitly." He was lying. He didn't trust the man implicitly, maybe his translating abilities, but not him personally. He would just keep that little bit of information to himself, no need for Buffy to know.

Buffy eyed him suspiciously. There was something he wasn't telling her, she could feel it. Ever since the day he told her that he would be returning to England and she would be getting a new watcher, she felt like he was holding something back. Whenever she tried to bring up the subject of the new guy, he would dance around it. All that he would tell her is that he hand picked his replacement, so she should trust him to make this monumental decision in her best interest. That whole line of reasoning didn't sit well with her. Just because she trusted Giles didn't mean she would trust anyone else on that damned Council. In her opinion, the whole Council was nothing but a bunch of dangerous flakes. She despised them and their practices. She jumped up on the pommel horse and sat down.

"Giles, the only one from the Council that I trust is you," she pouted as she swung her legs back and forth, "The others can jump off a cliff without a parachute for all I care."

"Buffy, please. Let's focus on Dawn, shall we?"

"No. As much as you say you trust this guy you haven't given me any reasons why I should. You won't tell me his name or anything about him. Giles, you're not making this easy."

Giles took off his glasses to clean them. Why did she always have to be so bloody difficult? He wasn't at liberty to divulge anything about her next watcher. He had been sworn to complete secrecy and since he was still on the Council's payroll, he had to abide by their wishes. Personally, he wanted to just tell her everything so they could get it out of the way before the poor chap got there. Unfortunately, it wasn't his decision to make. But he would be the one to pay the price in the end. He always did.

He looked at his Slayer. She had grown up so much over the last year. He barely recognized her, except when she pouted. That look he knew well, all too well, it had melted his heart and made him love her. No matter what, she would always be his Slayer, his daughter. He could tell by her mannerisms and the way she handled herself, that she had almost returned to the person that she was before she had selflessly given her life to save the world. She was spunky and headstrong again; attributes he found most endearing, but he also detected sadness within her.

"Buffy, were you able to reach your father?"

"Nice change of subject, Giles. And no, he hasn't returned any of my calls. You would think that the man would want to be here for his daughter's sixteenth birthday."

"Right. I'm sorry. I do hope that Dawn won't be too upset by his absence."

Buffy shook her head. "Nah. She knows he's a loser. Besides, you're here."

Giles returned her smile with one of his own. He certainly was going to miss them.

***

"Dawn he is so checking you out," Janice squealed.

"No way. He's not looking at me," Dawn said trying not to blush.

They had noticed a group of boys standing by the railing watching them. One in particular had been watching Dawn intently. She tried not to stare at him but he was so handsome. He had dark hair and beautiful blue eyes. She saw him look at her and she looked away quickly, trying not to let him know that she was interested. She turned to Janice and started giggling as teenage girls do around teenage boys. The boys continued to stare at them as they walked over to the food court to buy milkshakes. That had been Janice's idea. This way, they could sit at one of the tables and let the boys check them out some more. It would also give the boys an opportunity to come over to talk to them.

Dawn sat with her back to the group. She was just too nervous to face them. Her experience with boys was limited to one date, last Halloween. She was pretty sure that date didn't even count since the boy had been a vampire. And, she'd had to stake him with her pencil to keep him from turning her. So much for her first kiss. She was really starting to believe that the women in her family were doomed in the romance department. It just didn't seem fair. Why did they have to live on the Hellmouth? Why did her sister have to be the chosen one? Why did she have to be a big ball of mystical energy? All of these why's and not one answer. It was frustrating. Just like her social life.

Dawn looked at Janice questioningly when the girl's eyes got huge. Janice tried to tell Dawn that the dark haired boy was on his way over to the table but all she could manage was a cough.

"Are you okay Janice?" Dawn asked her friend with concern.

Janice smiled brightly and said, "Hi!"

Dawn couldn't understand what had gotten into the girl. Why would she be saying hi to her? Unless…

"Excuse me," a boy asked from behind Dawn, "can I sit down?"

Dawn shrank against her chair. Was there actually a boy asking to sit down with them? She turned around in her chair and looked behind her. There was the dark haired boy. Standing there, staring at her. She was in shock.

Noticing her friend's lack of ability to speak to the boy, Janice pulled out a chair and said, "Sure. You can sit here."

"Thanks," he said sitting down between Janice and Dawn.

"I'm Janice," she said reaching out to shake his hand.

"Hi Janice," he said with a small smile. Then he turned to Dawn. "And you? Who are you?"

Dawn was taken aback by the teenager's forwardness. "Uh, uhm…"

"You have a name, right," the boy asked her.

"Uh, y-yeah. Dawn. My name is Dawn." She couldn't stop looking into his eyes. They were so deep and blue, a place you could get lost in. He looked kind of scruffy but still handsome.

"Hello Dawn. Nice to meet you. I was wondering if you'd like to go out with me some time?"

Wow! Did he just ask her out? Had she heard him right? She looked over at Janice nervously. Her friend just gave her those huge eyes that said, "Say yes!" She was trying to answer him but all she could do was smile. As she was tripping over more "uhms" and "uhs," Janice's mom met up with the girls and informed them that it was time to go. Dawn looked at her watch and saw how late it was. Buffy was really going to kick her butt this time.

"Oh my gosh! We really have to go but it was really nice meeting you," Dawn managed to say as she and Janice picked up their things to follow the girl's mom. Okay. You can say all of that without a problem but you can't answer him about a date? How stupid could she be?

Janice elbowed her after they got up and started walking away. "You should invite him to your party," Janice whispered to Dawn excitedly.

A shy smile crept across Dawn's face. "You think I should?"

"Totally."

"I don't know. I don't even know him!"

"Well, what better way to do it than at your party," Janice exclaimed.

Dawn smiled at Janice. She couldn't believe she was about to do this. She turned and ran back to the boy. "Hey," she yelled but he didn't turn around. And since she didn't know his name there was really no way to get his attention other than to tap him on the back or tug on his arm. She chose the later.

"Excuse me," she said shyly, "I'm sorry but I don't know your name."

He turned around and grinned at her. "Maybe you can learn that next time we meet."

She bit her bottom lip and took a deep breath. "Uhm. I'm having, I mean my sister is throwing me a 16th birthday party at the Bronze day after tomorrow. I was wondering…are you interested? I mean…would you come?" She could barely breathe trying to get that out. And now she was holding her breath waiting for his answer.

He studied her face for a few seconds. He could tell she was interested in him. This was a good thing. Better than he had hoped. "Sure. I'll come," he said with a heart-melting grin. He had to make sure that he left her definitely wanting to see him again.

"Great," she said nervously, "it's at 7. Just tell them you're with the Summers' party."

He nodded in understanding but didn't say a word. Hadn't someone said that girls love the strong, silent type?

She smiled brightly as she backed away from him, still looking into his deep eyes. After a few steps she decided that she should turn around before she tripped and made a fool of herself. Before she hurried back to where Janice and her mother were standing, she looked over her shoulder to get one last glimpse of the boy who had just made her heart skip a bunch of beats. But he was gone. Now she was really looking forward to her party, not that she hadn't been looking forward to it before but now it was really going to be special. Hellmouth? What hellmouth? Today Sunnydale was the most beautiful place on earth.





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