Summery: Meeting Joyce

Disclaimer: Dawn, her family and friends, they don’t belong to me. *sniff*

Author notes: Lots of thanks and Huggles to BTL for betaing this one twice!

___________________________________

Chapter 4: Spellerific

Not caring how this looked, Dawn sobbed into her mother's shoulder. It wasn't until she heard Buffy clear her throat behind her that she realised that she'd completely blown it.

Uh oh, thought Dawn, her mind racing to come up with a good excuse for what she'd done.

"And now I have proof of the weird," noted Buffy behind her.

Dawn straightened up and smiled nervously at her mom. "Sorry. I got a little carried away," Dawn began to explain. "I just never thought I'd see you."

"Do I know you?" asked Joyce, a curious look her face.

"No," Dawn answered, truthfully, but with a hint of sadness in her voice. "I'm...your niece, Dawn Summers." Dawn stuck out her hand to be shaken. "I'm your ex-husband's brother's daughter."

Joyce took Dawn's hand and shook it even as her face portrayed her disbelief.

"You're my cousin?" Buffy squealed.

Dawn turned her head towards her sister and smiled. “Something like that.”

“You didn’t know?” asked Joyce, voice wild with curiosity.

Buffy shook her head. “No, uh, I met her at school yesterday, she come over to do homework.”

Joyce smiled as if she was suppressing a laugh, the gleam in her eyes highly amused. “I didn’t know Daryl had kids,” Joyce observed, referring to Hank’s brother.

Dawn shrugged. “Just me.” She locked eyes with her mother, wondering if she truly bought the lie or not. Her mom could never tell when she was lying when she was alive, and Dawn had this feeling that the same was true now.

“Well, why don’t you and Buffy get started with your homework and I’ll make you girls some snacks,” offered Joyce, that amusement in her voice punctuating each word.

“Hot chocolate?” Dawn suggested hopefully.

“Sure, Dawn.”

As Joyce retreated into the kitchen, Buffy grabbed Dawn’s hand and led her into the dining room.

“Are you really my cousin?” the slayer asked, hushed so her mother wouldn’t hear her.

“No,” Dawn admitted, a coy smile gracing her features.

“Not related in anyway, I hope?”

Dawn laughed. “I wouldn’t say that.”

“Huh?”

“How about you do your homework and I write up the calamities that are going to happen tomorrow night, instead of making your brain hurt trying to comprehend our relationship.”

“Daughter?” asked Buffy not getting the point.

“Much like Xander, you don’t reproduce. Stop asking the wrong questions.”

“I still don’t trust you,” Buffy muttered. “You with the vague, and the Angel hatred, and the mom huggage.”

“All true,” noted the Key, sitting down at the table. “Paper, pen?”

Buffy drew up her bag to the table top, producing a pen and a notebook suitable for Dawn’s tale of woe. With a cross look, Buffy handed her the two items.

Dawn looked down at the paper before her. Spike, Drusilla, the Anointed One, it was all going to be told, by her. Yep, Dawn, key, she of the changing the future.

Across the table Buffy stared her down, her pencil poised over her open math notebook. Joyce entered with two mugs of hot chocolate.

“I’m so glad that you two girls have met,” said Joyce, plunking down the mugs in front of them two.

Both Buffy and Dawn looked in their mother’s direction.

“Right, homework. I’ll leave. But, I want aunt/niece time when you are done,” Joyce ordered.

“Sure,” Dawn responded, slightly worried about her mother‘s ways of getting information out of her.

Joyce left again, leaving the girls with their hot chocolate and homework.

An hour later, Dawn set down her pen and leaned back in her chair.

“Done, and you can’t see it!”

“And now with the rubbing in my face. What’s so great about Parent Teacher night? Isn’t Spike going to wait for Saturday? Or is some other big demon going to eat the parents?” asked Buffy.

“I’m not telling you.”

“I really don’t like you. You and your superior than thou thing you’ve got going on. It’s kinda annoying.”

“Imagine how I felt when I lived with you,” supplied Dawn in retort. “How do you think I got this attitude? Had to have rubbed off from someone. And also I’ve had a really long time to get better at this, being a thousand odd years old.”

“Ya, ya, I’ve heard it already.”

“And you’ll probably hear it again.” Dawn stood, stretching. “Well I’m off to Giles’.”

Buffy stood up too. “I’ll go with.”

“Nuh uh,” responded Dawn. “You have chemistry to do and you really need to practice your French.” Dawn picked up her work and stepped out of the room, leaving Buffy.

“Are you going?” came Joyce’s voice from the living room.

With a start, Dawn turned towards her mother.

“Um, ya, I have an errand to run, but I’ll be back. We’ll talk.”

“Can’t we talk now?” Joyce prodded.

The Key hesitated for a moment, before heading into the living room and sitting down on the couch beside her mother.

“You aren’t really my niece are you?” Joyce asked, taking Dawn’s hand.

“How?” Dawn turned towards her mother with perplexed face.

“I don’t know.” Joyce sighed. “I just do.” A small smiled crept across her face. “You’re...you belong to me, don’t you?”

Dawn nodded, a tear running down her cheek.

“I never told Buffy this, Hank and I talked about having another baby. If it was a girl it was going to be named...”

“Dawn Eleanor,” Dawn interrupted, knowing exactly what her mom was going to say.

Joyce nodded. “A lot of weird things happen in this town, a lot of things I can‘t explain. I don’t know how I know this, or why I’m not freaking out about it. Maybe this is one weird thing that’s right.”

“I like the fact that you aren’t freaking out. Mom freakage is never of the good,” Dawn answered.

“I just...felt something when you hugged me. It’s like you’ve always been here. Always been mine, and also that you’ve been away from me for such a long time.”

“It’s been a really long time for me, Mom,” Dawn answered, her voice wavering with emotion.

“That hug...” Joyce tried to explain.

“Spellerific...“ interrupted Dawn. “Maybe I should hug Buffy...”

“I‘m still having trouble with the whole spell thing,” Joyce began, before pausing before she continued that train of thought. “You should come live here,” Joyce more ordered than requested.

“I’ve been living on my own for a long time, Mom,” noted Dawn.

Joyce smiled. “I liked it when you called me mom.”

“In my world I called you mom for fifteen years,” Dawn breathed, remembering the day when this woman before her was taken away.

“I could get your room set up for you...” offered Joyce, cutting through Dawn’s nostalgia.

“I don’t think Buffy will go along with that,” Dawn said, trying to bring some humour into the conversation.

“You could try hugging her,” suggested Joyce, smiling.

“I own a house on Crawford Street. You could come visit. Or...or I could come for dinner. Do the whole dutiful daughter thing?”

“I’d like that.” Joyce squeezed Dawn’s hand.

“I really missed you Mommy,” Dawn whispered, wrapping Joyce up in a hug that lasted much longer, and conveyed more emotions than their previous hug.

“What the hell?” exclaimed Buffy from the doorway.

___________________________________

Dawn knocked on Giles’ door with the grin on her face,. She couldn’t believe her good luck that the spell the monks did such a long time ago worked. She also had a sneaking suspicion that possibly it would work on Buffy too. But, on the other hand, it was fun to annoy Buffy, and any huggage that would make Buffy think that she was really her sister was just going to get in the way of the annoyance.

The door opened, revealing Giles, cup of tea in hand.

“Hey! I got the thing!” Dawn beamed, holding up the envelope containing the assignment. “I even had a witch enchant it so you can’t open it until after Thursday night.”

“Your enthusiasm for keeping us in the dark is unusually frustrating,” muttered Giles.

“And yet...” Dawn waved the envelope in front of Giles’ face.

With a sigh, Giles snatched the envelope away from her.

“Good, I’m off. Got things to do, places to go, people to see,” stated Dawn with a smile. Her smile faded. “Gah, one of my husbands said that. You’d think that after a couple of hundred years, that kind of thing would go away.” She shrugged.

___________________________________

Thursday arrived and Dawn was all giddy with anticipation. She walked into Sunnydale High just as the last bell rang. She wanted to see the preparations and Buffy’s inability to actually get out of a tough situation. Namely with Snyder, a man she’d never actually met.

Giles was, surprise, surprise, poised with a book in his hand. He looked up as she entered, but did not say a word.

“Hello to you too,” she answered regardless.

“I thought you were going to absent yourself from tonight’s events.”

“Hmmm, yes, I did say that. And the night hasn’t started yet.”

“One might ask, what are you doing here?” asked the watcher.

“And that one would be me,” came Buffy’s voice from the doorway.

“And that would be my cue to leave,” noted Dawn moving towards the door, making sure to keep her distance from her sister.

The door swung open once again, this time with Xander walking through with Willow.

“My parents aren’t coming,” said Willow. “I mean if they had showed any interest I’d tell them there was no point. ‘Cause with how Buffy thinks something demony’s gonna happen.”

“Dawn,” greeted Xander, completely ignoring her friend.

“Xander, Willow,” responded Dawn. “Please tell me that you haven’t done anything out of the ordinary ‘cause how Buffy thinks something demony is going to happen.”

“We started whittling stakes at lunch,” offered Xander.

“Should we be preparing?” asked Willow, a little concerned.

“You’ll do fine, Willow,” Dawn tried to placate.

“So, you’ll be back for the reading?” asked Xander.

“The what?” asked Dawn, unclear on Xander’s train of thought.

Xander walked over to the check out counter, and picked up Dawn’s envelope, and waved it in the air.

“You’re going to read it tonight?” asked Dawn.

“Why not?” Willow wondered.

“I just didn’t think you’d want to stick around after...all the parent teacher madness.”

“So you have plans while we’re here fight for our lives?” asked Xander.

“I never said you’d be fighting for your lives,” Dawn answered a little too quickly. “And not really.” Dawn shrugged., then with a smile she stepped towards her lover. “What should I be doing?” she purred.

“Hey!” Willow protested.

Dawn raised her hands and back away from Xander. “I’m backing away. Backing off now.”

“Good!” interjected Buffy. “Maybe you should go.”

“Going. I know when I’m not wanted. Sadly I have to be away from the disaster that is Mom meeting Snyder.”

“Stop calling my mom ‘Mom’!”

Dawn just smiled.

“Okay! I’m here!” Cordelia’s voice resonated through the library as the cheerleader entered the room. “Please tell me this won’t take long.”

“Ugh,” groaned the Key, rolling her eyes and heading out of the library.

___________________________________

tbc...