Are You My Daddy?: Telling Dawn
by slayerfest
“Hey, Buffy. Feeling better? For real this time?”

Buffy smiled faintly. “Yeah. Little headache, mucho guilt, but no crazy visions or murderous thoughts. Thank you so much, Will. You’ve never stopped coming…”

“Oooh, Buffy. Maybe you should not say that sentence for a while,” the redhead replied, smiling hesitantly. “Last time you said that, I sort of… ended up bound in the basement.”

“Right. Okay. Sorry. Being quiet now.” The Slayer stood in the doorway to what used to be her mother’s room and watched Willow bustle around. “Whatcha up to?”

“Just re-organizing a little. There was a drawer in your mom’s dresser that I haven’t touched yet, but I thought it might be fun to go through.”

“Keeping busy to avoid talking to me, huh?”

Willow stopped and blushed. “No!” She shook her head fervently at Buffy, who just gave her a withering look of disbelief. “Well… maybe a little.”

Buffy smiled. “I understand, Will. I’ll give you some space.” She winced ever so slightly. “I guess I should go apologize to Dawn, huh?”

“Well, you could, but she went to Janice’s overnight.”

“Right. Okay, well… is Xander around? Have you seen him? Oh, I guess he’s probably not too keen on seeing me right now either. Well, I guess I’ll just… go back to my room, then. Have a little Buffy-time.”

“Buffy…” Willow began slowly.

“No, Will. It’s fine, really. I’m fine. Everything’s…”

“Buffy. What’s your dad’s name again?”

Buffy looked up at her best friend. “Hank Summers.”

“Oh. Oh dear. Um…” Willow walked slowly toward Buffy, hesitantly holding out a piece of paper for her to see. “I, er… think there’s something you should know.”

Buffy took the paper and gave it a once-over, nodding and smiling. “Oh, yeah. It’s my old birth certificate. Mom ordered a new one when she thought she lost the original, but I found it in her drawer one day when I was six.” Buffy grinned at the memory. “I remember, she turned the strangest shade of red and then laughed nervously. It was almost as though…”

“Buffy. Read it.”

Buffy regarded Willow suspiciously and gave the certificate the once-over. A look of dawning horror appeared on her face as she read. “Oh my God. Oh, my God.” She slid down the wall and plunked dully onto the floor, all the while sporting an excellent look of disbelief. “Oh, God.”

Willow sat on the bed and waited for the shock to wear off a little. Finally she opened her mouth hesitantly. “Buffy?”

“Yeah?”

“What are you going to do?”

Buffy wiped her hands over her face and shook her head hard. “I don’t know. I…” Suddenly the look of horror was replaced with one of understanding and initiative that Willow hadn’t really seen since Buffy had come back from being dead. “Actually, I do know what I’m going to do.”

“What?”

Buffy stood slowly. “I think it’s time to get the scoobies back together.” She walked briskly out of the room and Willow followed her hesitantly.

“We were apart?”

***

Dawn walked in the door and dropped her bag on the ground ceremoniously. She shed her shoes and turned into the living room to be greeted by a large crowd of people.

“Uh… hi,” she said slowly. “Not that I’m not glad to see you guys, but what… happened to Spike’s face?” she asked worriedly, interrupting herself and going over to the sulking vampire in the corner.

“Nothing. Come off it, I’m fine,” he muttered, shooing her away with his hands.

“Buffy?” she asked quietly.

“The sun. Leave me, bit, I’m fine.”

The rest of the crowd was remaining strangely quiet. Even Tara, sitting quietly on Xander’s left on the sofa, didn’t rise to hug Dawn as usual. Everyone looked so strangely sulky. Dawn was about to ask why when Buffy walked into the room and her mood switched from suspicious to angry.

“Okay, I called pretty much everywhere I could think of. No one said they’d seen or heard from Anya, but I… think we can manage without her. I called… Dawn,” she interrupted herself. Though Dawn was overjoyed to see her sister actively taking control again, she was still angry about the state of Spike’s face, and now her concern deepened as Buffy’s eyes took on a look of combination horror and pity.

“You had no right,” Dawn said, choosing anger over exaltation and concern. “Why do you always pick Spike to beat up on?”

“Dawn…” Spike said from behind her, sounding tired and making no attempt to physically stop her.

“I needed him, Dawn. He was just… being a creep. But I needed him to be here.”

“I’m all right, bit.” He’d given up trying to convince Buffy to let the others know of their affair for the time being; his love for her ate up the vengeance he held. He knew she needed him genuinely this time, and that was a feeling he opted to treasure rather than ruin.

Finally Dawn let her anger ebb away out of suspicion. “Why is everyone so subdued?”

Buffy’s eyes darted to the rest of the people scattered around the room. “We’ll be back in a minute.” She looked sadly back at Dawn. “I have some things to discuss with you. Let’s… go into the kitchen.”

Dawn contemplated continuing her angsty annoyance, but curiosity got the better of her and she let herself be led away by the strong grip on her arm. There was more to this than a simple apology for the whole tied-everyone-up-in-the-basement thing; Buffy had another surprise.

“Okay, first off, Dawn, I am so, so sorry for yesterday. I’m a hundred-percent better now, and I promise, after all this is over, we’re going shopping, just you and me. Sound good?”

“I guess,” Dawn said indifferently, waiting for the real reason Buffy was paying attention to her.

The Slayer sighed. “You might want to sit down, Dawn. This might hit you a little hard.”

“Just tell me. I’ll decide if it hits me hard or not.”

Buffy sighed again and pulled something out of her back pocket, fiddling with it. “Do you remember,” she said slowly, “about six years ago, a few months before we moved to Sunnydale… when I first started talking about vamps and mom and dad sent me away for a couple weeks?”

“Hard to forget,” Dawn said quietly, knowing it was a bit of a sensitive subject for Buffy.

“The night I came home… I stayed in my room, but you claimed you heard mom and dad having a fight about… something. And then you were convinced that dad wasn’t our real…”

“Buffy. I remember. Get to the point.”

Solemnly, the Slayer handed over the card she’d been fiddling with. “I didn’t believe you. Now I do.”

Dawn read the card over, eyes widening when she got to the name on the card. “Oh,” she said simply, finally plopping down on the chair behind her.

Buffy sat down across from her sister. They sat in perfect silence for a long time. Dawn read the card over and over until Buffy gently pulled it away from her hands. “Are you all right, Dawnie? I mean, no, you’re not, but… God, I don’t know what to say.”

Dawn remained silent.

“That’s why everyone’s here. I… want to find him. And I need as much help as I can get. I especially need you in all this, Dawn. I want to make sure that you’re okay with this, and then I need you to help look. Are you willing to…”

“Yes.”

Buffy smiled slowly. “Good. Really good.” Buffy nodded to herself and then stood. “You can sit here for a while, if you want. I totally get it. I’m going to go talk to the others… if the phone rings, it’s probably Giles or… um, Giles.”

“I’ll let you know.”

Buffy shook her head. “I’ve got my hands full commandeering the troops. Will you be secretary for now?”

Dawn just nodded.

Buffy looked at her sister solemnly. “Dawn? Come on, Dawnie, snap out of it, just a little. Can I… get you anything? Do you want, like… ice cream?”

Dawn looked up at her sister and forced a smile. “No. I’m fine. Go.”

Buffy nodded and left the kitchen after giving Dawn a hug. She looked at the people in front of her: Xander, Tara, Willow and Spike all stared back at her unequivocally. It was obvious that none of them had said anything in Buffy’s absence.

Buffy took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Okay gang. Looks like we’re going on a trip.”

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