Chapter 2
"Buffy, I don't wanna go!" Dawn wails, arms crossed defiantly. "We haven't seen the man in ten years and now he wants to be in my wedding?! Tell him to go to hell and forget him!"
Buffy tries to get the younger girl to calm down. "I'm planning to, Dawn. Look, we can go eat his food, tell him everything's covered and thanks for coming by. I'll make sure he understands that we don't need him here."
"But why do I have to go? I mean, I haven't even seen a picture of him in years! He doesn't call, doesn't write, nothing! For years! Even when Mom was sick, he never called. Not once! If Grandma hadn't told him about her dying, I bet he would've asked where Mom was!"
Willow speaks up for the first time, adding her pleas to Buffy's. "Dawnie, no one's asking you to try to like him. Just to tolerate him long enough to see what this surprise is and for Buffy to convince him to go back to where ever he came from. One night's not too much to ask, is it?"
Dawn manages to say, "But, I..." before the front door opens again, admitting an anxious Faith.
The once dark Slayer quickly scans to room and spots her fiance, taking in her highly agitated state. Crossing the room, she engulfs the girl in a tight embrace. "God, Dawn! Are you ok?
Confusion arcs through the brunette's eyes as she returns the affection. "Sure. Why wouldn't I be?" She kisses her girl, then draws back, waiting for an answer.
Faith shrugs, a little confused herself. "Kennedy called me and said you were in trouble and that I should come home right away. She said you needed me."
Dawn smiles and kisses her Slayer again. "Always need you, lover, but I'm not in trouble. Well, not really." She pauses, an expression of distaste plainly evident. "It's just. - My dad showed up about an hour ago. He wants us, well, Buffy and me and my fiance to come to dinner. Faith, he thinks you're a guy!"
"You didn't tell him different?"
"He didn't give me the chance!" she cries, moving out of Faith's arms and gesturing wildly. "He was just - He was all 'Can't wait to meet him!' and 'Have dinner with me tonight!' and 'Hey! You've grown!'. Hello! Been ten years, that kinda happens.
"Then he just left! And now, Buffy wants us to go eat with the asshole and I don't want to." She stops and looks imploringly at her girl. "Tell her we're not going, baby! She won't leave me alone about it."
Faith watches her as she acts out her frustration and suppresses the automatic urge to comfort her. She knows Dawn has to get this out of her system before anyone, even her, can get the girl listen. In that, Faith hides a small smile, both Summers girls are exactly alike, though both would vehemently deny it.
The Slayer crosses to her girl and takes her into her arms, pressing a soft kiss to her forehead. "Wait a minute, Dawnie, I'm still playin catch-up here." She turns toward her future sister in law. "B, how's about you tell what happened and why D's so upset."
"Faith, no! I said I don't want to see him!" Dawn complains, trying to pull away.
Faith tightens her arms slightly. "Never said we were, baby. Just want to know what's goin on, that's all. It's ok." she reassures her brunette, kissing her gently, but quickly. "B?"
Buffy watches as Faith does in seconds what she, Willow and Kennedy have been trying to do for an hour, calm her sister and get her to listen. She smiles to herself as she remembers Xander doing the same thing to her and Willow calming Kennedy that way. She feels the last of her reservations about the once rogue Slayer fall away as she finally sees what the others have all along. These two are right for each other.
She sees, at last, that Dawn will keep Faith out of trouble and working for good and Faith will, in turn, keep her sister safe and make her strong enough to fully live her life. She knows now that only death will separate them. 'Although, in this family, that isn't quite the sure thing it is for most people,' she thinks, looking at a certain redheaded witch fondly.
Shaking off her thoughts, she looks at her dark haired counterpart and states, "Well, basically, what Dawn said is true. Our dad showed up about an hour ago, said he'd heard about you guys' soon to be married-ness and wants to meet you." She pauses, then adds, "Well, he said he wanted to meet the 'man' Dawnie was marrying. I tried to tell him he was wrong about that, but he just didn't hear what I said. Seemed like old times, with all the not hearing," she says somewhat bitterly.
Faith nods. "Ok, I got that part. What this about dinner?" she asks, ignoring the part about the expectation that she's male. Faith herself was still occasionally amazed she was marrying another woman. She wouldn't change it for anything, but, even though she's known she was on the gay-er side of bisexual for years, she'd always assumed that if she did marry someday, it'd be to a guy.
When she'd fallen in love with the brunette teenager, she'd been as amazed as anyone. When she has realized that Dawn was the person she wanted to stay with forever, she'd spent several minutes marveling at the irony of it, then forgot it. She knew, from personal experience, that life was cold, lonely and hard and that if you managed to find someone who would share it with you, no matter what, you kept them, if they let you. Dawn was willing to stay with her, even knowing what she'd done, what she was capable of doing. More than that, the younger girl loved her and Faith loved her more than anything else she'd ever known. Nothing else mattered. Especially not the opinion of the jerk who'd left them years ago and never looked back.
Buffy, just shrugs. "It's like Dawn said. He wants us all, especially me and Dawn and you, to meet him for dinner tonight at one of those really nice restaurants downtown. He also said he's got a surprise for Dawnie and me." She stops, trying to remember anything else her father had said. Suddenly, she looks toward her sister. "He also said Grandma told him how to find us. Dawn, how did she know?"
Willow interrupts, confused. "Buffy, I thought your grandmother was dead."
"Mom's mom, yeah. Dad's is going great. She even likes us. Sometimes." the blonde answers offhandedly, her eyes never leaving the younger Summers. "Dawn, did you tell her where we were? Cause, I haven't talked to her since before we left Sunnydale."
Dawn buries her face against Faith's shoulder, her face burning hotly. "I-I sent her a letter when Faith and I got engaged." She looks up at Buffy, still red faced. "Hey! I was telling everyone then, you know that! I mean, hello! Happiest day of my life, here." She stops and smiles at her Slayer. "Well, so far." She kisses Faith, slowly, but it starts building almost immediately.
"Do that later." Buffy commands, causing the couple to pull apart. "Why did write her? We're all registered with that database California put together, telling where people from Sunnydale moved to. She could've found us, if she wanted to, but she didn't, so we obviously didn't matter enough to her. Why'd you tell her?"
Dawn looks at the floor, chagrined at starting all this. Faith rounds on the oldest Slayer, anger building in her eyes. "Back off, B. It's not Dawnie's fault, so just drop that shit. You said it yourself, you're all in that file, with this address. He could've found us by doin a web search, right Red?"
"That's true, Buff. It would be easy, cause, there's a link on the state website to be all helpy," Willow confirms.
"So, see?" Faith continues. "He coulda found us, easy. D's letter doesn't matter at all."
Buffy reluctantly agrees. "Ok, fine. I still wanna know why she wrote to her." She takes a step toward her sister. "Dawn?"
The brunette looks even more embarrassed. "I-I. I guess the ghost of Anya was haunting me."
The blonde Slayer looks around at her friends, matching their perplexed expressions with one of her own. "I think I speak for all of us here, when I say, 'Huh?'"
Dawn's face looks like it's about to catch fire and her eyes are closed as she answers in a very small voice, "I wanted a wedding present from her."
For thirty seconds, nothing happens, then, starting with Buffy, they others begin laughing. It gets harder by the second, til Faith can't keep standing. She falls into the nearest chair, pulling Dawn with her, the younger girl ending up on her lap.
The brunette swats at her lover. "Stop laughing at me! I mean it!"
Faith manages to choke out between giggles, "Not... at... you... baby. Just... you're right. Just... such a... demon-girl... thing... to do!" She collapses against her fiance, the laughter redoubling. Dawn glares at her Slayer and friends for another few seconds, then breaks up and joins them.
A few minutes pass before the friends can pull themselves back under control, but one by one, they do. Buffy looks at her sister and says, "Ok, since this is really your fault," At a glare from Faith, she adds, "At, least partly, you have to go to dinner. Both of you."
"But..."
Faith kisses her lips, silencing the protest. "No buts. We're going." Seeing the anger and determination building in her girl's eyes, the Slayer says, "Think of it like this, Dawnie. We go, he buys us dinner, then he goes away. That's his wedding gift and he doesn't have to come back, right?"
Dawn sits on her Slayer's lap and broods for several minutes, then, reluctantly, replies, "Ok. We'll go." She looks at Buffy, fire still in her eyes. "But, if he says one stupid thing, especially about being in my wedding, if he won't take go to hell as an answer, I'm coming home. I mean it."
The blonde just nods. "That's fair." She looks around at her gathered friends and family. "Come on, guys. The restaurant he said is in the rich part of town, so we need to dress up. That means you two as well, Willow, Kennedy." She smiles wickedly. "He said brings my friends, so he can buy you dinner, too!"
Willow glances at her Slayer, seeing her nod. "Ok, Buff. We'll tag along. Just, be nice, both of you? At least until he's not."
Buffy agrees, but Dawn just scowls. Willow sighs and takes Kennedy's hand, leading her girls to their room to get ready. Buffy leaves as well, heading for her room to pick out a suit for Xander and to call him with the evening's plans.
Faith hugs her fiance tightly, kissing her cheek. "Hey. Thanks for agreeing, baby. I know you don't really want to do this."
Dawn turns toward her Slayer. "Then why am I? Why was this so important to you? You've never even met my Dad."
"That's part of the why. Look, D, I liked your Mom. She was great and always nice to me. Well, except for that one time, but no blame here. I did kinda take her hostage and..."She shakes her head. "Anyway, I liked Joyce, a lot. I got real sad when Willow told me she was gone cause I wanted to tell her I was sorry and then I couldn't."
The Slayer cups her brunette's cheek as her eyes begin to fill as she remembers her mother. "Sorry, baby. Didn't mean to make you sad." She kisses her lightly. "Anyway, where I was goin with this, was, I know that your dad ran off and left you guys. I know that this is the first time you've seen him in years, but I want to meet him. I want to know that everything in you came from your mom and Buffy. That's all."
Dawn looks into the once rogue's eyes, her own a little hard. "You want to know if I'll leave you someday the same way."
Faith violently shakes her head. "Not even a worry. We both know, with the whole 'Get some, get gone' attitude I used to have, I'm the one who's more likely to run, and that's so not a worry. You're everything I want in life, well, besides a vampire to stake now and then."She flashes a grin and Dawn returns it, eyes rolling.
"Seriously, D, you're stuck with me. You're the one who wanted us to start seeing each other, so now you gotta put up with me for a while. That ok?"
Dawn just smiles big, tears slipping down her cheeks. "Can that while be forever?"
The Slayer matches her smile with a tender one, a smile only Dawn ever sees. "That was my plan. You're mine, now and I belong to you. Now and forever. Nothing's gonna change that and I'll kill anyone who tries." Her words choke off as the emotions become too much and she softly kisses her girl, once, twice, then again before simply holding her close for some immeasurable time.
Finally, Faith pulls back a little, touching her forehead to Dawn. "Come on, babe. We need to start gettin ready if we're gonna be on time."
Dawn sniffles and answers, "Ok." She suddenly smiles. "Can I order something expensive to eat?"
Faith just laughs and sets her fiance on her feet. Taking her hands, she leads the girl to the stairs. "Sure. Speakin personally, I'm planning on totally eatin like only a Slayer can. Hope he's rich!"
The former Key just giggles and wraps her arm around her love as they head for their room.
AN Next time, the dinner! What nefarious surprise is the dastardly Hank Summers planning? Find out soon! :)
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