Camp Killalot

By Karen

Connor and Dawn stalked along side by side not looking at each other. Dawn was still quivering with embarrassment and anger over the whole half naked incident and Connor's ears were still ringing from the blast he received from calling her stupid. Which he would not be doing again in a hurry. He winced as he remembered some of the names she had called him in her rage and thanked whatever Powers there were that watched over him, that they had been interrupted by their rescued humans and had had to move to safety before they had been re-captured. Not that any demons had stood a chance against Dawn in that kind of a rage. Heck, he wouldn't have put money on the Devil himself if he'd gone up against the girl when she was in that mood.

They'd delivered the hostages to the now slightly overcrowded sewer and then as soon as the people were safe and locked in they had turned and marched off into the woods without a word. Connor shivered, this girl could hold a grudge better than his father and he still wasn't that sure what he'd done wrong. Apart from the stupid thing, of course. He was never making that mistake again.

Dawn stamped along and crushed her feet into the undergrowth as though she had something personal against each and every one of the blades of grass there. Her skin still hummed with fury and, to her eternal shame, reaction to his touch and the rest of her hummed with annoyance she was still being treated as something less than her partner.

She had enough of that with Buffy for god's sake! Every little scratch and bump being endlessly fussed and agonised over. Every little hit and injury obsessed over and, every night, the fight she had, just to get out of her own front door because Buffy and Spike thought she was too young, too precious, too weak to help in the fight. Her hand tightened around her axe handle and her knuckles whitened. She wasn't a child and it was about time the world sat up and realised that.

For god's sake, she'd held her own tonight hadn't she? Ok, not the Chosen One but still pretty impressive for a seventeen year old girl. She rolled her shoulder experimentally and nodded to herself in satisfaction, definitely easier to manipulate and it felt as though the skin was already beginning to knit. Her healing might not be on the same super scale as Buffy but it was still considerably faster than the average human and she was willing to bet that by the end of the week she would not have so much as a line to show for her troubles.

She sighed and glanced at Connor out of the corner of her eye. He stared at the floor as he walked beside her and looked so thoroughly miserable her heart twisted inside her. She felt a twinge of guilt at the awareness that she had majorly overreacted to his panicked examination of her body and had enough of a sense of fair play to know that she had reacted so strongly to him mainly out of frustration at Buffy and the others. And he was a hottie. Her face heated again as she thought of his gentle, slightly calloused hands caressing her unclothed skin and she swallowed. Oh yeah, definitely a hottie.

"I'm sorry." "I apologise."

They both stood and stared at each other as they came to an abrupt halt on the woodland path and then both opened their mouths and spoke again

"What?" "You're sorry?"

Dawn held up a hand and grinned

"Ok, before we go completely Three Stooges let me go first."

Connor's brow clouded in confusion again at her reference but he nodded shortly. Dawn took a deep breath

"I was out of order and I'm sorry. I should never have spoken to you like that but you wouldn't listen to me and I was embarrassed at the whole.."

She gestured aimlessly with her hands

"You know, pulling up of the top thing."

Connor waited and then when he was sure she had finished, nodded

"I'm sorry for calling you stupid and for embarrassing you. My dad checks for Cordelia for wounds all the time and I thought you needed looking over."

Dawn closed her eyes for a moment and took a breath. When she was sure she could meet his eyes without squirming or blushing a deeper red than Willow's hair she opened her eyes and said

"Angel and Cordelia know each other a lot better than we do. A lot better. When a boy and a girl don't know each other that well here we don't generally take each other's clothes off unless we're specifically invited."

Connor frowned again

"But you were hurt."

Dawn nodded patiently

"Yes. I also told you I was fine and not to touch me. When someone says no it means no, Connor." "Cordelia says no to my Dad sometimes and she doesn't mean it. She likes him to hug her and kiss her and she likes to tease..."

He stopped when he saw her wide eyes and pained expression

"Way too much information Connor! Not loving the visual on that one I gotta tell ya!"

She took another deep breath

"Look it's sweet of you to be so concerned but if I need your help I'll ask for it. I get enough of the coddling and babying at home I don't need it here. Ok?"

He nodded

"Ok."

Dawn grinned

"Ok. Now I don't know about you but I think our next priority should be finding out what's happened to all the counsellors here, cos so far, I'm feeling kinda short changed on the guidance."

Sunnydale.

Xander watched as Spike paced up and down the Magic Box shop floor irritation and fear rolling off him waves

"Um, Deadguy? You wanna save some of that energy for when we go riding to the rescue? Cos, you know, not loving the idea of sleepy vamp when it comes to the fighting."

Spike snarled and punched a wooden effigy of a defunct Babylonian goddess off the shelf ignoring the outraged yelp from Anya

"What the bloody hell is taking so long? Slayer! Get your slack arse in gear!"

Xander exchanged a wide-eyed look with Willow and motioned sharply with his head for her to get back behind the counter with Anya. The witch looked at the vampire and then backed hurriedly away eager to get out of the path of the Killing Rage Express. Xander saw both girls were semi-safe and hesitantly approached the other male

"Spike? You really need to calm down now. Kinda scaring all those with a pulse."

Spike's eyes flashed gold as he rounded on the young human

"Bugger off. We need to get movin'. The Little Bit's in trouble and we're all just standing around like she's gone to a sleep over at Mary-Sue's."

Xander shook his head and placed an uneasy hand on Spike's sleeve

"I know but we need to load up on the old weaponry first. It's no good charging to the rescue with just us and a few broken branches."

He turned in relief as he heard Buffy's brisk step echo on the wooden floor and the Slayer emerged from the training room tying her hair up in a tight ponytail

"Ok guys, here's the plan. Will, you and Giles are staying here and researching your asses off for anything that might give us a clue what we're facing when we get there. We'll take a cell so if you get anything, call us. Spike, Xan, Ahn, we're leaving. We've loaded up the shop van with gear and we're meeting up with Angel and the gang at the halfway point."

She leaned over the counter and snatched her favourite sword from under the cash desk

"Let's go."

Spike whirled for the door

"Finally!"

Xander stood back and let his wife precede him and then followed Buffy out the door saying "Ya know, Buff, when we get Dawn home you really might wanna look into anger management courses for your boy there. Not big with the calm."

Buffy smiled grimly over her shoulder as she climbed into the back of the van

"Good. I'm counting on it."

Xander shook his head and climbed into the passenger door yelling in surprise as it took off the minute his butt touched the seat. Willow stood at the door and watched the vehicle screech round the corner and shook her head as Xander finally managed to close the door. She turned to go back into the shop feeling almost sorry for whoever came up against Spike in his current mood, things were gonna get ugly the minute the demon set foot in Dawn's camp that was for sure.

Camp Kitchaka.

Dawn crouched behind Connor and stared at the group of councillors that knelt on the floor with their hands tied behind their backs and really big swords at their throats. From her position at the lake's edge she counted twelve humans and fifteen demons, only three of them vamps. Connor touched her arm and motioned with his head for them to back off a few steps. They slithered back until they were fairly sure they were out of earshot and crouched in the whispering reeds at the shore's edge

"We need to get the humans out of there but there are too many demons, if we rush them people will die."

Dawn nodded in agreement at Connor's calm statement

"Uh-huh. Any thoughts?"

They both uncurled from their positions on the floor slightly to look at the group again. Dawn cursed as she saw a tall, ebony demon stride into their midst, the other demons falling back before him

"Damn, looks like the Grand Poobah's arrived. Whatever we do we'd better do it fast I don't think they have a lot of time left."

Her gaze flicked to the boathouse a few yards away from which more frightened screams could be heard

"I think they're gonna go ahead with the raising with what they have here. We need to do something now."

Connor stared around him searching for inspiration and then his eyes fell on a jeep standing to the far side of the clearing. He looked behind him and saw a length of strong boating rope coiled behind him. His heart quickened in excitement as he whispered

"Have you ever roped a cow?"

Dawn's mouth fell open in surprise and he reached for her hand with a devilish grin

"Follow me and stay low. I've got an idea."

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