Disclaimer: Joss owns all, I own nothing.

Author’s note: All hail the fab BTL! Wonderful beta extraordinaire!
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Chapter 5: Blood

Buffy bounced down stairs leaving a slightly perplexed vampire, naked in their bed. Today was another beautiful day. She peeked through the blinds in her perpetually shaded house before looking into the fridge to see what to cook her sister for breakfast.

“I am on the verge of barfing so if you decide that I need meat in any shape or form for this meal you are going to have a mess to clean up,” came Dawn’s voice from the kitchen doorway.

“Oh. My. God! Did you use the stairs?” exclaimed Buffy, rushing around the island with mocking interest.

“Ha ha. Laugh it up. I think all the dimension hopping is giving me vertigo,” moaned Dawn, finding a stool to sit on.

“Do you even know what vertigo is?” asked Buffy with a raised eyebrow as she returned to the fridge. “Yoghurt?”

“Nah, I’m good. The thought of food right now is incredibly off putting.”

“Off putting?”

“Too Giles sounding?” asked the teen.

Buffy nodded.

“Got to stop hanging around Giles. All that research he makes me do, it’s so...”

“Fun? Worthwhile? Fulfilling? Stop me when you agree...”

“British...” Dawn added with a frown.

“Oh. But hey, Spike’s British and he hates the research. So it’s probably a watcher thing.”

“But I’m going to be a watcher. You said I was going to be a watcher.”

Buffy leaned across the island and took her sister’s hand. “Dawn, if you want to be a watcher, then you will be a watcher. Just because you were a watcher in my past, doesn’t mean it’s written in stone. I’ve already made so many changes just by telling you guys what’s happened or knowing stuff already. You can make your life into anything you want it to be.” Buffy smiled softly at her sister. “Now you need food, in some form. There are mini quiches left over from last night?” Buffy turned back to the fridge, taking out a pitcher of orange juice.

Dawn wrinkled her nose. “Microwaved nibblies? No thanks.”

“Oooh! I’ll eat ‘em!” bounced Willow into the kitchen. “And! Oh! Morning!”

“Someone looks like they are in a good mood!” observed Buffy.

“Someone is in a very good mood,” responded Willow. “I have no nosy Witch people telling me what to do today, and! oh! Mini quiches to eat for breakfast! With possible Doritos to be consumed for the desert of breakfast.”

Dawn slid from her stool and grabbed the glass of juice Buffy sat before her.

“Nosy witch people?” inquired Dawn.

“Oh they were really cool. But nosy! They were all, ‘Willow have you done this?’ and ‘Willow what are you doing now?’ as if I was smuggling gummybears or something. I miss gummybears. We have to buy gummybears before my tummy goes on strike.”

“We’ll get you gummybears,” laughed Buffy. “Are you coming to campus with me?”

Willow nodded, pouring herself a glass of OJ. “I have to get my books and course outlines that I’ve already missed. I still can’t believe you are going back to school Buffy! I’m so proud of you!”

“I’ll let you decide further into the year if you are still proud of me. I fully expect to be bored to tears at every opportunity. I have a Ph.D, when I was in a much wrinklier body with no teeth and I’m stuck in second year classes.”

“Yes, your second youth is harsh,” said Willow, sarcasm dripping off her tongue.

“Am I going to get driven to school?” cut in Dawn. “I’m seriously thinking that I can’t portal hop today,” putting down her glass of orange juice and looking decidedly green.

“Dawn are you alright?” asked Willow, putting a hand to her forehead. “She feels hot. Do you feel hot?”

“No, I feel like I’m going to barf,” muttered Dawn, her hand flying to her mouth.

Buffy sprang into action and tugged Dawn to the empty sink before the teen could yak on the floor or her new back to school clothes. Buffy rubbed her sister’s back tenderly while Willow handed her a glass of cold water from the fridge.

“You are going right back upstairs, into bed and rest,” ordered Buffy. “No dimension hopping, rest and fluids.”

Dawn nodded.

“I’ll just have to tell Spike he can’t play his music full blast while we’re gone to school today,” continued Buffy.

“Is that what he does all day?” asked Willow with a look of disbelief.
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The house was silent. Tara, Willow and Buffy were at the university, doing the coed thing and Dawn was peacefully sleeping whatever bug she had off in her room.

Spike was bored.

His plans for the day hadn’t included a sick teenager to care for. And he didn’t mind that. Dawn was his to take care of, ever since he made Buffy that promise before she died that second time. But with the nibblet sleeping, he hadn’t a bloody thing to do. He was a house vamp, using the time that the nibblet and Buffy were away at school to clean the house, do the laundry, run errands that couldn’t be taken care of when it was normal vamp out and about time.

He’d been domesticated. But at least it was by the one woman he’d gladly domesticate for. He was out of Berba weed, had to go to the magic shop for that, and he’d heard about Clem’s new plan for a demon gym, which he wanted information on. Clem was always coming up with crazy ideas about what demons needed to improve their quality of life in Sunnydale.

Course he couldn’t do either of those things with Dawn sleeping soundly upstairs. So he decided to snoop.

His room, and Buffy’s, was still full of little bits of the Slayer that he had yet to discover. When he’d moved in last year she’d told him that she had nothing to hide from him and that he was free to snoop as much as he liked. In fact she’d expected it.

It had made the whole thing seem less appealing.

Now he had nothing better to do. The house was clean. He’d called a company in LA that made special vampire safe glass and they were going to redo the windows in the house and the two cars next week.

Passions wasn’t on for another three hours. And he couldn’t play his music.

Snooping it was then.
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Buffy returned from her day of tedious History classes that she could have taught herself, to find her living room a mess. Papers, photos and other mementos were scattered about the place. She smiled to herself at Spike’s snooping, but sobered up when she realised that if he had been snooping he would have cleaned up. His days of letting the minions clean up were long over, he had a feeling the minions in this case wouldn’t take too kindly to being ordered to clean up his girls’ mess.

“Spike?” Buffy yelled into the house, worried. She could feel him in the building through their claim. “Spike?”

“Upstairs Goldilocks!” came his voice, an edge to it that made her forgo the stairs and teleport to the second level.

Spike was sitting by Dawn’s bed holding her hand softly, worry etched on his face. Dawn was sicker than she had left her this morning.

“I can barely tolerate touching her. I can’t find that blasted thermometer thing and she’s been talking in her sleep. I don’t know what’s wrong with her,” he admitted.

Buffy touched her hand to Dawn’s forehead and frowned. “She’s about the same she was this morning.” Crouching down beside her mate, Buffy peered into her sleeping sister’s face. “Dawnie?”

Dawn’s eyes flickered a moment, before the teen moaned and rolled away from the pair, her brow moist with perspiration.

“Dawnie?” Buffy repeated, trying to get her sleeping sister’s attention. The look of worry that etched on her face wasn’t reassuring to her mate who had let go of Dawn’s hand. “She’s never been sick. All those false memories that the monks gave us, there’ve been broken bones and she had the chicken pox but she’s never had a fever or even the flu. There is something wrong about this, Spike. She’s not supposed to get sick now.” Buffy’s voice was steady but panicked. “I need Giles, and Willow and Tara and Anya,” she said suddenly. We have to find out what’s wrong with her.”

“I was thinking the hospital, pet,” he offered, standing up and wrapping his arms around his mate securely.

“The hospital? No, no hospitals, Ben worked in a hospital. A hospital didn’t save mom. She’s not a regular kid...”

“No love, she’s not,” he noted reassuringly. “But it can’t hurt. Ben’s gone. No one’s going to hurt our nibblet.”

Buffy sniffed back unshed tears and looked over at her sister, laying haphazardly on the bed. “Why didn’t she tell me she felt his bad? I thought it was because of all her dimension hopping...what if something’s really wrong with her?”

Spike placed a kiss on the top of her head, but she still went on.

“This is all my fault, I should have stayed home...”

Buffy’s self incriminations were interrupted by Willow appearing at the door.

“Dawnie still sick?” she asked.

“We’re gonna take the nibblet to the hospital, can you call the Watcher?” asked Spike.

“Oh, ya sure,” responded Willow, with a frown.

“Get the nibblet ready, carry her to the car, I’ll be out there with the motor runnin’,” Spike directed, forcing Buffy to look at him. Weakly she nodded, allowing him to release her. The sun high in the afternoon sky was not going to make this trip to the hospital any easier.
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Willow and Spike sat in the waiting room of the emergency department, silently. Buffy had gone in with Dawn. The silence was getting to be uncomfortable. Spike liked Red. He really did, but after what she had done to Dawn, forcing her to experience her key powers before she was ready, he wasn’t all that thrilled to be in her company alone.

“Tara and I have decided to look for another place to live. Molly’s coming and she’s going to need a room,” said Willow, filling in the silence. “It’s too late to find a place on campus, but there’s an apartment that we looked at today...”

Willow was cut off, by Buffy’s arrival into the waiting room, a grim look coming over her face. Both the witch and the vampire stood up, Spike reaching out to soothe her.

“What’s wrong with Dawn?” asked Willow first.

Buffy clasped and unclasped her hands a few times before answering.

“They don’t know. She’s on an IV and they’re moving her to an isolation ward. They think she might be contagious. We’re all going to have to be checked for whatever it is she might have.”

“Well except me,” observed Spike with a grin.

“No, you too. You came in with her. You’ve been on their security cameras. They aren’t letting us leave without it,” whispered Buffy.

“But, it’s Spike! They’re gonna notice the heart not beating and the lack of body heat,” noted Willow.

The doors to the emergency room opened and in walked Giles and Anya, their faces worried as well.

“We were counting the money and doing inventory, completely innocently when Tara phoned us,” explained Anya.

It would have been a perfect time to tease Giles and Anya about other things she suspected they were doing in the Magic Box, but Buffy wasn’t in a mood to tease.

“Are they allowing us to see her?” asked Giles, giving his business partner a queer look.

Buffy shook her head. “She’s been isolated. They think she might have some weird disease, like in that movie with Dustin Hoffman...”

“Outbreak?” supplied Anya. “It was a very entertaining movie. Of course the makeup effects weren’t as accurate as you might think. I was around during the Black Death you know, it was much worse than in the movie. I wasn’t responsible for the plague, well that one anyway, it was D’Hoffryn who did that brilliant piece of vengeance work...What?” she asked once she noticed everyone was staring at her.

“I know you are trying to help, Anya, but this is not the time or place to be regaling us with details of the bubonic plague,” offered Giles.

“There you go again with being like Xander! Telling me what’s not appropriate amongst humans! Well I’m not human! Live with it!” hissed Anya, while the whole group thanked the PTB that she had kept her voice down.

“Miss Summers?” interrupted a doctor who was wearing a facemask and rubber gloves, drawing the group’s attention away from Anya.

“Doctor, can we see her?” asked Giles.

“I’m afraid we can’t allow that, in fact you may all be contaminated. We are testing her blood now, I have to ask that none of you leave the facility and that Miss Summers come with me, for testing.”

“Her blood?” squeaked Willow. “You are testing her blood? Taking it out of her body?”

“Willow’s right, that’s not a good thing to do!” agreed Anya.

“I beg your pardon, but you are not the doctor here, Miss. We know what’s best for the patient. Miss Summers?” The Doctor motioned for Buffy to follow him.

“Why did you bring her to a hospital in the first place?” Anya asked Spike as Buffy was led away.

“Are you implying that Dawn’s blood still has qualities that will effect the dimensional barriers of this dimension?” asked Giles.

Anya squished up her face at the watcher and poked his nose. “Oooh I knew I liked you for a reason! Since Willow got all happy with the power giving...”

“Hey!” protested the witch.

“...Dawn’s blood has been what allows her to pass through dimensions. If they take it out of her, it’s kinda like holding a bottle of nitro glycerine,” noted Anya proud of her analogy.

“Bloody hell,” muttered Spike.

“That’s probably what’s wrong with her anyway. She’s been dimension hopping so frequently that she’s probably burnt out whatever it is that is in her blood that is magical and the imbalance has made her all woozy and sick.”

“So how do we make her better?” asked Willow.

“Blood transfusion,” supplied the demon. “But first we have to get Dawn’s blood back before some stupid intern drops her blood on the floor and we all end up in some dimension vacuum.”

“Just how do you propose we do that?” asked Giles. “We can’t very well storm the isolation ward.”

Anya rolled her eyes. “Oh for D’Hoffryn’s sake!” Anya disappeared in a puff of smoke and reappeared seconds later with a vile of blood in her hand. She held it out to Spike. “Drink this,” she ordered.

“That the nibblet’s?” he asked taking the vile from her.

Anya nodded. “Drink it. I can’t think of what else to do with it. Probably could sell it at the Magic Box, but what happens if there’s an earthquake and a box falls on it? Poof, dimensional vacuum.”

Spike nodded slowly. His nibblet’s blood. He didn’t think he’d ever taste her blood. Spike looked at the faces around him, all watching as he held the vile.

“Do you want us to start chanting ‘chug, chug, chug‘?” asked Anya helpfully.

Spike tipped the vile and let the contents slip down his throat. Dawn’s blood was a mixture of tastes. He could taste Buffy, himself, ancient power, and sickness in her blood.

Willow grabbed the vile from his hands and poofed it out of existence.

“No evidence,” she whispered. “So now what? We have to get Dawn new blood. Won’t the doctors do that?”

Giles shook his head. “There’s no reason for them to do that. She hasn’t lost any blood and now that Spike’s ingested their sample they have no way to test it.”

“There’s got to be another way to put blood into her, without taking blood out,” muttered Willow, trying to wrap her head around the problem. “And we’d still need compatible blood, it can’t be just Joe Smoe’s blood, what blood type is Dawn?”

“Same as Buffy’s,” interjected Spike and every eye landed on him. “What? I just drank her blood! I can tell what type it is from taste.”

“So we need Buffy’s blood then,” observed Giles.

“And we need Willow to do a mind thingy on the doctors and nurses,” added Anya.

Willow shook her head. “No, I mean poofing viles away is one thing, but messing with people’s brains? No, not going there again. That way leads to power crazed and black eyes. Or...or so I’ve been told.”

“Red, it’s Dawn,” started Spike. “Laying in that hospital bed, getting sicker and sicker...”

“And you think that if I do this it makes up for what I did to her?” asked Willow with a sneer. “I didn’t see her complaining, when she was all dimension happy!”

“She didn’t know she would get sick from it!” barked Spike, raising his voice, his demon flickering just below the surface.

All conversation in the emergency room stopped as everyone, nurses and patients alike, turned to look at the four people standing and arguing.

Willow gulped. “Fine, I’ll do it,” she conceded. “When the doctor comes to get me for my testing.”
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Buffy returned to the group, wondering why they were all standing in silence. Willow sulked back with the doctor, drawing the attention of the three others.

“What’s going on?” asked Buffy.

“Miss Summers?” asked the doctor, turning around, Willow standing right beside him. “We are going to need you again in the back.”

Buffy looked perplexed for a moment but followed the doctor anyway, grabbing onto Willow’s hand as they walked.

They hadn’t let her see Dawn since she’d brought her in, but now the doctor led her straight to her sister’s side. She could feel that Willow was using magic at that very moment, to do what she wasn’t sure, but she was grateful that she now had the opportunity to see Dawn.

Her sister looked horrible. The pale vampire like shade of white did not suit the Californian teen at all.

“Oh Dawnie!” moaned Buffy.

“Miss Summers if you could sit here, we will do the blood transfusion right now,” said the doctor, as if he was in a daze.

Buffy looked at Willow for some inkling about what was going on. All she got was a muttered ‘later’. With little reluctance, Buffy sat down on the offered chair and offered her already poked and prodded arm for the doctor to do what he was going to do. She watched with intensity as the Dawn was hooked up and the blood started to flow down the tube and into her sister.

Seconds slipped away.

“Buffy?” moaned Dawn’s voice.
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tbc...