What if Dawn would have been reached a little too late that Halloween?

Disclaimer: I do not own the characters, I’m just playing with them. My larcenous mind has not thought of a way to make any money out of this so please do not sue me.

Even the rain stunk here, running in streams down the filthy streets and washing oily rubbish down the storm drains. He stopped the car outside the block, getting his hair wet as he locked it. God, this place stunk of dirt and stale sweat and booze and despair. Spike snarled, suddenly angry. How could she have ended up here? This was the sort of place he belonged, not her. Never her.

He shook his head as he walked into the lobby, glancing over at the man who ran this flophouse from behind his iron cage, scattering water droplets onto the urine stained carpet. The owner was watching some sitcom, the canned laughter depressing in this sinkhole. Spike walked up stairs, ignored except for the CCTV, which wasn’t able to see him in any case.

He found her the old fashioned way, by smell. Picking out her scent through the morass he followed it to the room. The door was battered and broken, how many times had it been kicked open and just bodged back together? No one living here would worry, they wouldn’t have anything worth stealing anyway.

Spike hesitated, hand poised to knock. He felt suddenly unsure, afraid of what he might find. All these years….what, eight? No, nine. Nine years, five months and sixteen days. Vampire memory was not always a blessing, perfect recall could be a curse.

He knocked, hearing the TV being turned down. A voice, her voice.

“Who is it?”

“Spike. Let me in.” he was afraid for a moment that she would just turn the TV up again. All these years looking for her and she could just ignore him. Might not want to see him. He could not blame her, he didn’t want to see himself sometimes.

The door opened, and the stink hit him. God, he’d never lived like this. The place stunk of booze and sweat, and stale blood. She stepped back, not smiling. She just looked at him.

“Wanna come in?”

“Yes.” He stepped into the room as she shut the door and moved over to sit on the flea infested bed.

“Long time Spike.”

“Long time Dawn.” He studied her face, she had aged despite…the life she’d been living would have done that. Still had those big eyes though, and that lovely hair though she’d shortened it a little. She sat there, suddenly looking away and playing with her fingers nervously. For a moment he could imagine her as that little girl again and his hart ached.

“You… your hair.”

“Didn’t like the colour.” He ran a hand through his dark tangle, “You cut yours.”

“Gets in the way.” She shrugged, “when I…”

“Know the problem, can I sit?” She nodded so he sat beside her, at a loss for what to say though he had spent nearly a decade planning for this moment. He felt like howling at his own impotence. What could he say that would make it all better?

“Got to say you like the high life.” Awkward silence.

“How did you find me?” she didn’t seam angry or frightened, just resigned.

“Got my ways, nibblet. Didn’t get to be the Big Bad by letting folks get away from me.”

“Does it still work? The chip?”

He shrugged, “Haven’t tried it for a while. Last time was only a little jolt…Willow reckons the battery’s half dead.”

“How is she?”

“Up and down. Had a bad patch after you left, Tara got her back on the straight and narrow though. Got some job fixing computers, bit of a let down for her parents really.”

“And…how is she?”

“Reason I’m here.”

She nodded, closing her eyes and turning to face him, “Make it quick Spike.” She held her breath and waited. He frowned, suddenly seizing her arms and shaking her.

“That’s not what I’m here for!” he hissed, trying to be angry but just hurt. He shook her and she opened those eyes again, looking sadly at him.

“Why then?”

“I’m here to take you back.”

“But…what I did-“

“I’m responsible.” He blinked back tears, “Now don’t be trying any of your little tricks either, nibblet. I might not have the hair but I’m older then you, and I’m still Spike.”

She nodded, and they rose. She didn’t have any thing to pack, Vampires travel light.

##

“OH my God!” Buffy was screaming, shaking Dawns limp body in the car. “NO! Dawn no!”

Spike looked up from the bloody mess he was making of the boy, snarling in rage he crushed the head with his boot, damaging it enough to dust the vampire.

Buffy still was shaking her sister as if she could wake her up, regardless of the gapping wounds in Dawns throat. “Dawnie, wake up Dawn!” she clutched the corpse to her chest and began to rock it, singing some lullaby.

“Buffy…” Spike approached her carefully, “Pet…she’s gone. Let her be.”

The slayer recoiled from him, “Stay away from her! You!” eyes wide she kicked clumsily at him, falling over.

“Come on pet.” He spoke soothingly, “Come on Buffy. Let her go.”

She spat the words at him, hate filled eyes burning a hole in the soul he didn’t have. “You didn’t protect her! Your responsible!”

##

He fed her a blood bag from the cooler box in the back of his car, looking away as her face changed. He had chased off a couple of would-be car thieves when they reached the vehicle.

Now he turned the key in the ignition and gunned the engine, splattering a couple of passers by with dirty water. One shouted something but he just gave the bloke the finger and kept going.

##

“How is she?”

Willow looked startled by his question, as if he wouldn’t give a damn or something. The red head looked worried, not meeting his eyes.

“Not good.” She looked like she needed a shot of magic or something, he offered her his flask.

Xander was pacing the Magic Box like an angry tiger, ignoring Anya who sat in a heap in the corner sobbing. Spike understood how the boy felt. But what could he say? They all blamed him, as if he had told the bloody nibblet to go creeping off with her friend. Just because he was what he was. He wondered why it hadn’t been her bloody friend who got herself killed, then things wouldn’t be so bad. Not for them anyway and frankly he did not much care about anyone else except Buffy and Dawn.

Failed. He had failed them again, not because he wasn’t strong enough, but because they had got there too late. Even killing the killer hadn’t changed that. He punched the wall, sending plaster flying.

Xander turned, wanting to fight with him, no longer even needing an excuse. Spike just wanted to rip his throat out, but even if he were able he knew it would help. He wanted to cry, as he’d cried for Buffy, but the tears just would not come. He felt empty.

Spike gratefully took the first punch on the chin, tumbling backwards as Willow and Tara tried to brake them apart.

##

Buffy frightened him. She was silent and pale and seamed deader then him as she sat at the table, looking at her friends. They were waiting for her to say something. He thought about the poor nibblets body, shoved into the cold store at the morgue. Poor kid never got a chance, he thought. Lived millions of years as some mystical blob of energy and then killed in a stupid vamp attack. That was why they were sat here, vamp attack meant there would be…repercussions.

Some one would have to stake her, who though? Volunteers? No? No one up for killing Buffys sister?

“I’ll do It.” he broke the silence, before the words were on any ones lips. He was a monster anyway. What would one more crime matter? Xander opened his big mouth to say something, but thought better of it. Buffy looked up at him, dead calm.

“You’ll do what, Spike?”

“I’ll…I’ll…take care of her.” His voice cracked, “You know it needs to be done?”

“Why Spike?” that calm voice was unnerving, like she was dead again. Possibly she felt as if she was.

“Because….because she’ll turn.”

“Like you did?”

“NO.” he suddenly realised what she was saying, “Buffy you can’t- the poor kid isn’t- do you want her to be like me Buffy?” She’d been sleeping with him on and off since coming back from the dead. But she didn’t love him, couldn’t love a dead thing. And he could not deny that he was just that, a dead thing.

“How will you do it Spike? How will you kill my sister?”

“Tonight, before she….before she knows.”

“What was it like when you turned Spike?”

##

He had opened his eyes, feeling something inside him. Something alive and vibrant and angry. His Demon, though he hadn’t know that at the time.

Dru had been there, crooning away with her usual drivel. Angelus glowering in the background with his own sire.

All of it had been so new, so alien. But the power, even bowing down to snots likes Angelus he had felt the power inside him. The limitless possibilities, to do whatever he wanted.

He had made a very close relationship with his demon, unlike some who were ruled by them- made animals for the most part, not given to lasting long- he had come to an arrangement with his. They had worked well together, both wanting much the same things.

##

“You don’t know what its like Buffy! You don’t know what you’re asking!”

“Yes I do. I want you to protect my sister. You said until the end of the world! You promised Spike!” She was standing now, arguing with him.

“It won’t be her! It’ll be the demon in her body.”

“That what you are Spike? A demon? Telling me that a Demon loves me?”

“I..She doesn’t deserve it.”

“Dru was the way she was because of Angelus, wasn’t she? Your still part of the man you used to be aren’t you? Aren’t you?”

“Part.” He sighed, “A small part. It varies with the person, but…”

“We need you for this Spike, until Will can get the Soul curse ready. We need you to do this Spike. We need you to protect her.” That was the whip she held over him, those words he’d spoken.

“Alright.” He sighed. He had a promise to keep.

##

Dawn rested her head on his shoulder as he drove. If he let himself he could forget the last nine years and pretend he was just taking the nibblet for a drive. She murmured something in her sleep, waking herself. Blinking she looked up at him and smiled.

##

The first time a new one opened their eyes they were confused, always confused. He watched as she panicked for a moment, thrashing around the bed in his crypt.

Then she was upright, growling for a moment then looking confused.

“Spike?” she smiled, he was her friend, and she knew she was safe.

“Hey there.” He dropped his fag butt, grinding it into the pile of others that had accumulated on his vigil, “how you feelin’ ”

She frowned, a good sign. Reaching up she touched her face, squeaking in alarm and yanking her hands away as if she had burnt them. Scuttling up the bed she banged her back into the cold stone wall and pulled her self into a lump.

“Spike! Spike my face!”

“I know, that’s why I’m here. Don’t be afraid.”

“But! Oh my face! I’m a….” she could not bring herself to say it.

“Welcome to the club. Now I need you to be strong now nibblet. You can do that for old Spike, cant you?”

She nodded hesitantly, so he continued speaking, “Red’s working on a little mojo to give you your soul back. You’ll still have the demon, but that’s what keeps you walking around, so best hang onto him, ehh?” She nodded.

“Now, your going to be getting all sorts of ideas and wants and needs that you wont be familiar with.”

“Like puberty?” very human, trying to classify with something she’d experienced before.

“Like puberty with bells on.” He watched her carefully and was ready when she made her move. Intercepting her before she got two steps off the bed, he grabbed her in a bear hug.

“Oh no we don’t.” her new strength surprised him thought it shouldn’t have. He held her while she hissed and kicked and scratched and tried to bite, he hesitated for a few moments before throwing her brutally against the wall. She slid down it, groaning and for a moment he wanted to go over to her. Tell her he hadn’t meant- then she was up again, growling like an angry cat.

“Now, “ he side-stepped as she rushed him, grabbing a handful of material at the scruff of her neck, “this is going to hurt us both a hell of a lot,” He slammed her into the wall twice, “but we’re going to show you who’s the boss.” He threw her like a rag doll onto the bed. He had a horrible flash back of his own house training under Dru and Angelus. He wasn’t going to have to go THAT far.

He prayed God not.

##

Dawn was hungry again so he fed her the other blood bag. She slurped it down greedily, licking her fingers clean afterwards.

“So, what you been doing lately?” she looked animated for the first time since he had found her again.

“Same stuff as before you left.” He knew what she was planning from her eyes and sighed wearily, “The doors got a child lock Dawn. Where you planning to go anyway?”

She shrugged,” I did ok so far.”

“You call that place Ok?” he sniffed, “You could do with a bath too. You smell like one of those unwashed undead your sister used to stake.”

“So why do you care?” she hissed, “It’s not like going backs going to change anything is it? I still don’t have a soul, only real people have souls.” Bitterness there, been festering since she was alive, thought Spike.

“Me, I don’t have one either.” He shrugged, “Done alright for me self though. Got a life now."

“Well Whoopee Whoo for you.” She sneered, “And that like means I’m suddenly going to be real or something?”

He slammed on the brakes, ignoring the angry hoots of cars forced to swerve around them. Seizing her arms he put his face very close to hers and hissed, “Now you listen to me you self absorbed little cow, I’ve spent nine bloody years looking for you, we all have. If you think we’d bother doing that for some one who wasn’t real your thick in the head. Your real, where you bloody well came from doesn’t matter. Buffy died for you- remember? You think not being real gives you the right to run around and do what you bloody well like don’t you? Oh poor old Dawn just popped into existence out of nowhere. Well, where you think the rest of us come from? You think we ask to be born? Fill out a form in triplicate?”

“I didn’t ask to be made into a vampire.”

“No, well bloody tough ain’t it? No one stopped you taking a walk on the beach these last few years did they? So live with it.” He released her and gripped the cars wheel for a moment before driving on.

##

She was a difficult Childe.

Spike was surprised at just how vicious she had suddenly become. It wasn’t just the demon, the demon didn’t send her off nicking stuff before she’d died did it? It was what had been driving her then that was suddenly given free reign. Much like himself.

He hadn’t got to be the Slayer of Slayers because his Demon told him to be, Dead Spike was in many ways the live William the Bloody (Awful poet) suddenly without any of the restraints that had been bearing heavily on him all his life. Being able to do whatever you wanted was not always a good thing for a body.

Spike had forbidden anyone from coming to the crypt until he got her under some semblance of control. If they saw her now they would want to stake her, no doubt about it.

“I want to go out!” she whined petulantly after she’d finished the mug of pigs blood. She was pacing around, but he had taught her- the hard way- about throwing things when she had a strop on. She began to fiddle with the mug, he could see she weighing up another beating against the release smashing it would give her.

“You know I can’t let you out, Nibblet.” He yawned, how many days without sleep? He was losing count.

“I don’t see why not! Its not like I’m going to kill anyone is it? Even if I did that wouldn’t be so bad would it Spike? You killed lots of people. We could share…”

“You want another hiding?” He snapped, angrier with himself for being tempted then at her.

“I hate you!” This time she did fling the mug, shattering it as she dived under the bed and out of his reach. He was just pulling her screeching form out when the door opened.

“Uhh, Hi.” Willow just stood there, looking in horror at him. Didn’t she realise that if he did not get the brat under some control soon she would be a menace? She was looking at him as if he was some sort of monster. Putting on his human face he gruffly asked what she was doing there.

“Tara and me came over to see how Dawnie was doing.” Tara was a little behind Willow, looking concerned.

“Still a bloody monster.” He set her on her feet, “Say hello little bad.”

“Willow! You have to get me out of here! I cant live like this!” Dawn tried to run to the witch but Spike gripped the scruff of her neck firmly. She was bloody dangerous to everyone except him at the moment. “Spike hits me for anything!”

“Soon Dawnie, soon.” Tara spoke soothingly, stepping up beside her lover and putting a comforting hand around her. Willow was on the verge of tears.

“Spike, we need to talk.”

“So talk.”

“Alone.”

He glanced hesitantly at Dawn, “You want to talk to Willow?” She nodded.

“You sit right there on the bed then, you get off that bed an’ you’ll be sorry. Got that little bad?” She nodded sullenly, making him feel like a monster. He set a chair out of arms reach of the bed for Willow.

“Red, if she moves, tries to touch you…”

“Sure.” Willow was going to start blubbering in a moment, then the little one would too…Jesus he could not take much more of this.

“It won’t be so bad once we get her black little soul back inside her. For now she’d dangerous…I mean it.” He walked to the corner of the crypt where Tara was waiting, running a hand through his hair wearily.

“So, how long before the mojo’s ready?”

“There’s a problem…”Tara didn’t look away, brave girl thought Spike. Not a kid like the rest of them.

“How big?”

“Pretty big. We’re pretty sure that Dawn never had a soul, not in the sense yo- I mean we, do. She was created, moulded to hold the power of the Key, but we’re pretty sure no soul.” She swallowed, “There’s nothing we can do.”

“Oh bloody marvellous.” He was going to go bald if he kept worrying his hair, he felt like creaming with frustration.

“What’s she been like?”

“You do know she’s got one hell of an angry head? It has been a pretty rough existence for the kid and it’s all free to run around now. What you lot say about the demon not being you is Boll-“ he was interrupted by the squeal of chair legs on stone. Turning he bolted for the struggling bundle of arms and legs and pulled a hissing, spitting Dawn off Willow.

She had been trying to kill her, no doubt about it. He slammed Dawn into the wall, hard. It would not do any real harm to her now. Tossing her into the corner he snarled, scaring the two humans even more. Dawn had her human face on again and was crying. His face wavered for a moment, but he forced his other one to remain. She was sobbing about being sorry, not meaning it, she reached out a hand but he just hissed evilly.

God, in the old days he would have been proud to have a childe like this but now it just alarmed him. In the old days he could have just staked her if she pushed him too far. Spike turned to help Willow to her feet, he was surprised by her reaction to him before he remembered to put on his human face. She gingerly took his hand.

“You OK?”

She nodded, unable to speak. He looked over at Tara.

“It’s not her fault! “He fixed his gaze on Willow, “You didn’t touch her did you?” Harder now to get a reaction “Did you?”

The red headed witch nodded shakily. Stupid cow! The kid was so mixed up right now that she couldn’t control herself…the smell would have been overpowering.

“How could you be so stupid!” he grabbed her arms and shook her, “Don’t you idiots know what your dealing with?” his chip was warming up, he could feel the pre-shock tingle that signalled he was getting out of control. He took a breath, calm, calm, calm, don’t want to kill her really. Not much anyway.

“Come back tomorrow.” Tara nodded at his words, Willow was still in shock. “We’ll think of something, Ok Willow? Get home and have a drink. Or something. It wasn’t anyone’s fault. Just an accident.”

##

She was restless as Day approached.

“You going to park up somewhere Spike, or do you still drive through a slit?”

“The twenty-first century is a time of marvel.” He intoned with a smirk, flicking the switch that darkened the windows.

“Cool!”

“So what you been doing out in the world?”

“After I..After I left I hitched to LA.”

“Angel said you hit town.”

“Yeah, didn’t say hello though.” She scowled, and he had to smile, “I didn’t want to run into him after that one time so I headed up to New York and hung out there for a few years.”

“Tried to find you there. You’d moved on.”

“Yeah, no one wants to really get to know you when you’re the slayers sister. Kinda freaks them. So I drifted around the south for a couple of years and sort of wound up where you found me.”

“Being alone must have been hard.”

“No biggie.” She shrugged, “I had to keep away from other vamps, and only saw one slayer, black girl in Texas.”

“Didn’t kill her?” he tutted, “When I was your age…” he glanced over at her and was rewarded with a giggle. Good, there was still some of the old Dawn there. After what she’d been through he had worried.

“Living on the homeless?”

“Yeah, pretty much.” She licked her lips, “We could stop off for a snack. You said your chip isn’t working all that good anymore.”

“Bit of a hurry pet.” His words sounded a little forced to both of them.

“I don’t want to go back anymore.” She snapped, “I don’t have anything there.”

“Now you’re talking daft.”

“Don’t patronise me.”

“Tell you what, you come home without any ruckus and see what its like. If you don’t like it you can go back to stinking and living in dives. Or I can come with you, show you how to do things a bit better.” There was no way he was letting her loose without someone to watch her back. She had been lucky to make it a decade on her own.

“You’d come with me?” She found the idea intriguing, and he suddenly realised that she had grown up somewhat in the last ten years. Changed.

“I always did look out for you didn’t I?”

##

“Out of my way Spike.” Buffy was swaying on her feet, he could smell the alcohol on her breath. Couldn’t face the reality of her decision sober. They were outside the entrance to his crypt, she clutching a stake and him blocking her way.

“There’s no need for that.” he pointed to the stake.

“Yes there is.” She wiped the tears from her eyes, gulping “She’s my sister. I have to..To put her to rest.”

“We can work on it. Work something out…”

“Work what out Spike? She tried to kill Willow! I can’t let her kill…I can’t. You know that!”

“She’s a kid, she couldn’t help herself.”

“She’s a monster! She’s a monster! Not Dawn, my sister is dead. Oh my God,” she began to sob, “my sisters dead…out of my way Spike.” she weakly tried to barge through.

“She’s your sister, Buffy. I can’t let you just kill her, never forgive yourself.”

“Not my sister. You were right Spike, you were right and I wouldn’t listen. I let her turn, let her come back as a monster. Didn’t want to listen. “

“I was wrong.” He spoke softly, pleading with her to listen, “It’s Dawn, a frightened, angry, dangerous Dawn, but its her. If the Wicca twins are right she never had a soul in the first place anyway. It’s Just Dawn with a really big problem, OK? Let me deal with it.”

“No. I can’t. “ Buffy gulped again, “she’s my sister. I have to do this for her.”

“I can get her in line, Buffy. I can make it so she is safe to be around again. She still loves you, and your bloody friends, she just doesn’t know how to control it yet.”

“Can you?” she looked at him, if he showed a trace of doubt now Dawn was dead.

“I know I can. Let me do this Buffy. Let me save her.”

Without a word Buffy turned and walked away.

##

“Is Buffy coming to see me soon?” Dawn sounded mournful, as she always did now after feeding.

“Big sis is very busy right now, nibblet.” He tried to keep his tone light, “Got a lot on her plate right now.”

“Oh yeah, like I haven’t? “

“Cheer up, lil’bit.” He mussed her hair, “You won’t be in here forever.”

“What, like I’m going to go to go back to school? Your not allowed to wear shades in class.”

“You don’t like school anyway.” Her progress, if you could call it that, had been slow. He didn’t like roughing her up so much but if he did not keep her straight she’d be out killing in a hart beat. He had no illusions over that, she was a stone cold killer now. Time to teach her a bit of humanity again….only problem with that was that he wasn’t human.

“Get changed, real quick like, and we can go out.”

“We can go out?” She was exited by the thought, three weeks in a crypt with only him for company had not been much fun. He smiled, she needed her friends and family now that he could halfway trust her not to rip their throats out. She was still the nibblet.

##

“Can we stop at a motel? I need a shower.” She was hungry too, and he didn’t want her running loose near people. What was he thinking? She had been doing that for years now.

“Clean clothes an’ hot water are waiting. We’ll be in SunnyHell by nightfall. Not changed size have you?” she smiled at his little joke. Then he rang ahead to make sure food would be ready too.

##

Willow took attempted murder rather well, he thought. She smiled at Dawn when they arrived, inviting her in. She and Tara had been having trouble but they hid it for Dawns sake.

“Oh my, Spike what have you done to her hair?”

“Not been brushing it as much as she should.” He shrugged, he had tried to get her to keep clean, but she had been too lazy this last week. He had been too tired to force the issue.

“Spike didn’t tell me we were coming here!” She glowered at him, ha, like it his fault she couldn’t be arsed to wash? She had perked up immediately on seeing something normal again, and began to munch her way through a large tub of popcorn.

“How do you feel Dawn?” Tara sat near her, looking at her with that searching gaze that Spike always found unsettling.

“Dead.” She giggled, shrugging “Not so bad. I can smell really well now, and see in the dark. Can I go home soon?” she glanced at Spike nervously. He suddenly felt like he was the one who’d tried to kill Willow…well in point of fact he had but that had been a while ago.

“Soon honey. You know Spike’s just helping you work out how to be a vampire without…”

“Yeah, got be a Good vamp.” She sounded sarcastic, “Look, its really nice that your all worried and everything, but I feel lots better. I just want to go home….Hey, does all this mean I can go on patrol? Super strength and all.”

“That’d be Good. Summers sister fighting evil together and all that.” Spike was getting hungry watching her eat, so he stole a handful of popcorn. She growled low in her throat and he raised an eyebrow. Immediately she remembered herself and went back to eating, looking sullen.

He noticed the looks Tara and Willow gave each other when she had asked about patrol. He glanced at Dawn, “I’m going into the kitchen with Tara, “she rolled her eyes in disgust, not liking being left out of the loop, “You just sit there and talk with

Willow. No killing her OK? Bad manners.”

“SPIKE!” she whined at him, “I was trying to forget about that!”

“Just see that you do.” He gestured with his head and Tara followed him into the kitchen. He pushed the door almost shut, keeping one ear trained on the conversation in the next room.

“What’s going on? Where’s Buffy?”

“She..” Her hesitation was a fraction too long, “There’s a lot going on right now, bad demonic stuff.”

He stuck his head around the door. Willow was brushing the nibblets hair to take out the tangles. Dawn looked at him and smiled sweetly. He nodded to her before returning to the conversation.

“Lets you and me play truth or dare. You tell me the truth and I won’t just walk out and leave you to look after Buffys sister tonight.” He saw Tara, wise, accepting Tara, recoil slightly from the thought. Understandable but not something Dawn should see right now. He would not have left her anyway.

“Buffys….upset.She can’t see Dawn right now. Maybe later.”

“So what am I supposed to tell Her? That the Slayer doesn’t want to know now she’d a vamp?” he felt his voice rise. Tara motioned him to be quiet, jerking her head at the door. Dawn, couldn’t let her hear. Spike nodded.

“Not yet, it’s all too much for her to handle. Give her time, Spike…She can’t deal right now.”

“Fine.” He hissed. The Doorbell rang.

“That’ll be Xander and Anya. “ Tara made a pushing motion, he was so close to her she could hardly move, “If you’ll let me get it.” he nodded, fuming.

Dawn was chuffed to see Xander, Spike thought, she probably had a crush on him or something. No accounting for taste. Anya was as tasteless as ever but no one seamed to mind.

##

She shivered a little as her drove past the sign, glancing at him.

“Spike…”

“Yeah?”

“Why did you bring me back? Here I mean. After what happened….”

He sighed, “It’s your home. And whatever you are, Dawn, your still family.”