Chapter 9
By the time light breaks through the windows the kitchen is mostly presentable. We’re still down two chairs which we should be able to fix, or we can go to Goodwill or somewhere and replace them. Not right now though. Nothing would be open, and we’re holding our eyes open with matchsticks, essentially. I make another pot of coffee.
“What do you think it could be?” Willow asks, as she’s taking apart the laptop at the table, putting screws and bits into an empty divider drawer from one of our crystal organizers so she doesn’t lose anything and can keep track. She’s seeing if there’s anything she can save and use to rebuild the computer. Spike apparently brought back whatever pieces he found of Buffy Bot, and Willow doesn’t think anything is salvageable.
“It might be for the best for Buffy that while she’s readjusting to our dimension that she doesn’t have a replicant of herself running around.”
Willow nods and continues her work on the laptop.
Just as Dawn comes into the room commenting on how tired we look I realize I never actually cleared up the protection spell components last night. They’re still on the opposite end of the table from where Willow is working.
“You look tired.” Dawn remarks, yawning herself.
“Thanks.” Willow says, not looking up.
“Did you sleep okay?” I ask her.
“I woke up at one point.” She admits, “I had to go check and make sure Buffy was still in her room. Then I was able to go back to sleep.”
Willow looks over, concerned.
“It’s okay.” I tell Dawn, “It makes total sense.”
She nods, appearing grateful to have not been dismissed, “Sh-she is still here, right?”
“If you want to check it’s understandable. I haven’t seen her yet this morning but I’m sure it’s been a while since she’s had somewhere comfortable to sleep. She’s probably just exhausted.”
Dawn nods again but disappears out of the room and then comes back in a couple of minutes later looking satisfied, “She’s sleeping.” She confirms.
I give Dawn a hug and Willow gets up to join us.
“I’m still kinda mad you didn’t tell me you were going to try this.” Dawn says.
I let Willow take the lead on this one. She’s flushed with embarrassment again, but when she sees me looking at her she swallows and says, “I am sorry that we didn’t tell you or-or Giles, but the risk that it wouldn’t work, small as it was. I didn’t want to make you a promise that I might hav—wind up breaking and hurt you. I figured better to be able to surprise you with good news.” She’s toying with her fingers a little bit, “We also didn’t mean for you to find out like that. The demon bikers interrupted the ritual and everything went haywire. Buffy was disoriented and ran off before we could stop her, and then we figured you would still be at home anyway…and we’d have time to catch her.”
Dawn chews on that, “You were already here when I got back.”
“Willow was very drained after the ritual.” I explain, “Xander and Anya went after Buffy to bring her back and we came back here to explain things to you; but you weren’t here an-and we had no idea where you’d gone.”
“You didn’t come looking for me, though.”
Willow points to the spell remnants on the table, “Tara used the map to track down where you were so we could come find you, but when we realized the tower was part of it we turned it into a protection spell for everyone and a come home safe spell too.”
“At that point we knew you were with Buffy.” I explain, “We thought you’d maybe run to Spike’s crypt, but wanted to make sure. Then you were at the tower instead, and I thought of the cards in the reading and panicked a bit.”
Dawn nods.
“Reading?” Willow asks.
“The last card was The Tower but it was upside down.”
“I was scared the cards were being literal instead of the stress and horror being in the past—but I—”
“The tower did come down.” Dawn admits, “but we were running down from the top already. I wondered how when we jumped the last bit I didn’t get hurt. Buffy is Buffy but I’m not—thank you.”
“I’m glad—we’re glad you didn’t get hurt either.” I tell her.
There’s another group hug and then Dawn says, “Please tell me there’s something to eat that’s not pancakes.”
“I can make you—or teach you how to make an omelet.” I offer.
“That would be cool.” She says.
Soon I have her chopping some veggies and sausage up to put into the omelet while I make sure we actually have enough dishes to serve things on. She’s whisking eggs when Buffy appears.
Willow immediately rushes over to her. Dawn hanging back, watching, cautious.
“Oh, Buffy!” Willow says, “How are you feeling?” she’s twitching a little, her arms out. I realize she wants to give Buffy a hug but is uncertain.
“Okay.” Buffy says. She’s still wearing her pajamas, and her eyes have flicked to the exits and windows and things a couple of times.
“Are-are you hungry?” Willow asks.
“Yes.” Dawn moves closer, and then next to Willow, “Tara’s teaching me how to make an omelet. I bet we can add a bit extra so you can have some?” she glances over to me, and I nod.
“Okay.” Buffy says.
I crack a couple of extra eggs into the mixing bowl, and move to open the fridge to get a couple more sausages and the remaining half of the pepper and onion.
“I’ll clean off the table.” I tell her, “Just need another round of chopping and by then it’ll be ready for the next stage.”
Dawn nods and moves to do what I asked, after giving Buffy a hug, “I’m so glad you’re here.” She says, softly.
I gather all the salt and red dust into a bowl because I have an idea of using it to make protection charms, hopefully. The map gets folded back up after a couple of false starts, and the candles and crystals put back, or put on the shelf behind Willow. Buffy sits down on the one remaining chair, looking off into the distance, through the wall.
Willow hesitates again where she’s still standing close to the doorway and then goes back to the table to continue to work on the laptop. Dawn has switched to chopping the extra veggies and sausage, so I break the yolks of the new eggs in the bowl and get to whisking.
Buffy is watching us intently, as I’m having Dawn pour the eggs into the warm pan she says, “So, you’ve been happy family this whole time?”
“What do you mean?” Willow asks, “Of course, we looked after her. We weren’t going to let her go into foster care, and it wasn’t like we were going to be able to get hold of your Dad.”
Dawn freezes and I rub my hand on her back.
Buffy looks stung, “He didn’t get in touch?”
“No.” Dawn says, “His answering machine said he’s overseas, probably with that secretary still.”
“I know things are different.” I tell Buffy, “but—maybe we should have this talk later.”
Dawn looks at me, “I can take it if you’re talking about me.”
My main fear is I’m not sure what Buffy’s reactions will be to anything we say. Of course, we would have Dawn stay where she already was we couldn’t exactly move her into the college dorms, and plus with Buffy Bot it looked like Buffy was still here, owning the inherited house and being an adult who could take care of her sibling even if we were doing it.
“We had Buffy Bot.” Willow explains, “It looked like you were still here—but she—it wasn’t exactly capable of taking care of her, and like I said we didn’t want Dawn being taken into foster care, and she couldn’t come live on campus.”
Buffy seems to weigh this for a long time, long enough for us to have finished two large omelets which can be split for four people, which I do, and Dawn serves to Buffy and Willow before we take ourselves the remaining portion and lean against kitchen counters to eat given the chairs situation.
Buffy toys with the omelet a little bit.
“I’m glad you’re back.” Dawn says to Buffy, “but I’m also glad that Willow and Tara came here. I wouldn’t want to live with Anya and Xander and their whole, um, romantic life.” She chews on her lip, “If they even could have taken me in. I’ve seen the—the kids at school who are fostered and heard some of their stories. I might have been taken to another city even and never seen anyone again.”
Buffy nods, “I’m glad you’re still here.” She says, a little flatly, but Dawn goes over and gives her a hug and Buffy closes her eyes and squeezes her sister tightly. Some of the tension in Buffy’s body releases as they embrace, and when they separate Buffy’s eyes are shining a little.
“If you want us to move out, we still have a little bit of time to get into the dorms on campus.” I tell Buffy.
She shakes her head, “It’s okay. The place will be less less.”
It takes her a while to eat her omelet, but we don’t rush her. The rest of the dishes have been cleaned and set on the rack to dry. Then she announces she’s going to get dressed and goes upstairs.
“Is she okay?” Dawn asks after we hear her bedroom door close, “I don’t know if I should do the bowling thing with Janice today. Should I stay?”
I rub a hand down Dawn’s arm, “It’ll be okay. Go hang out with your friend have something normal go on to take your mind off everything—”
“But—”
“Do you want to go?” I ask her.
“Yes.” She hesitates, “But shouldn’t I check with her?”
That’s a good question. Buffy is her actual guardian, but all this was arranged before Buffy came back. It’s going to be tricky to change this dynamic, when it’s been almost five months of us against the world.
“That look is telling me I should.” Dawn says.
“I’m not sure what my expression is saying about my thoughts but I’m just thinking about the adjustments we’re all going to have to make.”
“I’ll check with her and go find my shoes.” Dawn disappears upstairs and we hear her knocking on Buffy’s door.
“It’ll be okay.” Willow says to me, “It’ll probably be best if she’s not here during the conversation with Xander and Anya and the whatever-it-is.”
“What if it follows her?”
“I think…” Willow says, “Given it went to Xander and Anya it’s probably focused on those of us who were in the ritual, soooo I think it only went after her to go after you.”
“What’s your thought on what it is then?”
“What what is?” Dawn asks, reappearing in the doorway, and given her demeanor is still at ease I’m guessing things went well with asking Buffy.
“We’re just wrapping up things to do with the ritual.” Willow manages a pretty decent lie compared to other times.
“What time will you be home?” I ask, hoping to keep that deflection going.
Dawn either doesn’t notice or doesn’t care, “About five.” She says, “It’s just lunch and a couple of rounds of bowling.” She looks pensive for a moment, and I ask what’s wrong, “I just—when I asked her about it she just said ‘okay’ and shrugged. Almost the same way she’s been saying ‘okay’ all the time since I’ve seen her. When I went in there, she was just sitting on the edge of her bed staring.”
“She’s adjusting, Dawnie.” Willow says.
Dawn nods, “It’ll probably take a while, huh?”
I nod and put my hand on her arm and slide it down to take her hand, “It will, but she’s here and she’ll be fine. She has you.”
Dawn gives Willow and I a hug and then leaves calling up to Buffy that she’s going. There’s no response and Dawn casts us a slightly worried look as she opens the door.
“We’ll check on her.” I tell Dawn.
That appeases her and she leaves.