Disclaimer: Joss owns ‘em, I just play.

Author’s note: Thanks to BTL for the beta. She rocks my socks.
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Chapter 24: Mmmm Cookies

Buffy, Amy, and Anya teleported back to the house. The first thing that hit Buffy was the fact that it didn’t smell anymore. A quick scan of the house and Buffy decided that it looked rather…clean.

Good for Dawn, Buffy noted to herself as she hefted Amy on to the couch.

“Do we have to rescue the boys now?”

“I think they can take care of themselves,” Buffy noted, leaving the living room for a moment to find the trusty first aid kit.

“What are you talking about? Giles is mortal. Mortal. Those military men can put tubes in Rupert’s tender skin! He could be naked and full of tubes!”

Buffy shook her head trying to get that image out of her brain.

“If you are that worried about him, you can go and get him. I’m slightly busy with Amy,” Buffy said indicating the witch that was passed out on the couch. “We had a plan.”

“I think your plans suck,” noted the vengeance demon with a grumpy face.

“Think about it this way,” Buffy responded with a soft smile as she bent over Amy, “Right now, Giles is probably speeding away from the scene of a very large explosion.”

“He’s probably having more fun than we had too,” Anya pouted. “I was happier when I thought he was full of tubes.”

“Your mind works in very strange ways.”

“I like how my mind works.”

From somewhere in the basement there was a loud crash.

“Either you have large rats, or someone human-y or demon-y is in your basement,” Anya noted inspecting her nails.

“Care to go and check it out?” Buffy asked.

Anya sighed. “I guess, but if I suffer any kind of flesh wound you are the one I’m complaining to.”

“You always complain to me,” Buffy noted with a smile.

As Anya headed towards the kitchen, Buffy had to shake her head. Anya had grown on her so much since she’d come back from the brink of death last year. Maybe it was an affinity with someone else who’d lived a lifetime or two. In fact Anya was approaching best friend status. Not that Buffy would ever tell Willow that.

Buffy disinfected several of Amy’s cuts before she heard any other sort of noise from Anya.

And it was a scream.

Buffy jerked her head at the noise and was instantly on her feet and moving towards the kitchen before she was halted by Anya’s hand on her shoulder behind her.

“You really should talk to that sister of yours,” Anya noted with a disgusted look on her face. “She is doing unnatural things with bunnies down there,” Anya cringed.

“Dawn?” Buffy called out to her sister, her eyebrow raised in question at Anya’s suggestion. “Dawn?”

Slowly, Dawn ascended from the basement, her hands covered in bright yellow dish gloves, and she was wearing old ratty pyjama bottoms and a shirt that had seen better days, which had a large picture of a rabbit on it.

“Dawn?” Buffy started, but was cut off by her sister and the gesture she made with her gloved hands.

“Don’t! I got back here, and it was gross. I’ve been cleaning pretty much non stop. I’m so racking up the brownie points here. Hence the ratty clothes. And then I went down stairs to go some laundry, and there’s a body down there. A dead decapitated body…”

“A body?”

“A mmmm cookies demon,” Dawn explained.

“Mmmm cookies?” Buffy asked, another perplexed look on her face.

“M’Fashnik,” Anya noted. “It was the one calm and reassuring thing down there. Oh the rabbit horror.”

“Just what were you doing down there with the body of a M’fashnik demon?”

“And the bunnies!”

“I was attempting to move it, so I could get it up the stairs and bury it in the back yard. I tripped, okay? Mmmm cookies is heavy, and I fell into a box containing Dawn the early years….”

“And your obsession with all things bunny? Yes, I remember that phase,” Buffy recalled. “So you were reminiscing with M’Fashnik and your Thumper collection?”

“Yep.”

“I can see why that would disturb Anya,” Buffy noted. “Thank you for cleaning the house,” she finished with a smile.

“Brownie points. I’m totally collecting.”

“M’Fashnik didn’t disturb Andrew’s collectables did he?” Buffy asked, slightly worried. Nerd angst was something she didn’t want to have to deal with.

“Boba Fett is still in his display case,” Dawn confirmed.

“Small blessings,” Buffy responded.

“There was also a bag on the porch when I got here, and, you know, taking refuge from the smell, I saw it,” Dawn commented.

“Bag?” Buffy raised an eyebrow in query.

“Yes, bag, brown, leather, has handles. I wasn’t about to open it. I left it outside. Baby mmmm cookies could be in there.”

“Or something bunny like,” added Anya. “On the other hand it could be a bag of money. Let’s open the bag.”

Buffy turned to her friend with her hands on her hips for a moment. “I thought you were worried about Giles?”

“Pfft, he’s an adept sorcerer, he can handle himself,” Anya muttered. “I want to know what’s in the bag.”

“Right,” Buffy noted, “and we must not say no to the vengeance demon. Anya, Amy is lying here, bleeding, and you are concerned about mysterious luggage?”

“Hey, at least she’s not talking about how much the bag is worth or how Amy is going to cost us because she doesn’t have medical insurance,” noted Dawn.

“Not helpful, Dawn,” Buffy sighed.

“Don’t mind me,” Amy moaned, regaining consciousness. “Though I am a bit chilly. Dawn, could I trouble you for some clothes?”

They all turned their attention back to Amy, just as a loud blast could be heard in the distance, rattling the windows.

“I’m thinking mission accomplished then?” asked Dawn, turning to head up the stairs.

“Sounds like,” Buffy confirmed.

“Now we just have to wait for them to get home,” added Anya.

“Then maybe we can get back to normal,” Buffy sighed. “I have a wedding I’m supposed to be planning you know.”

“I thought that was a myth!” snarked Dawn from upstairs.

“Ha, ha,” deadpanned the Slayer.
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When the three vehicles returned to the Summers’ driveway, Amy was dressed and sleeping peacefully on Dawn’s bed upstairs. The beheaded M’Fashnik demon was safely buried in the backyard and the offending bunnies had been returned to their box in the basement.

The two vampires ran in, blankets over their heads as protection from the sun overhead. The moment Spike was in the house he started complaining.

“And just why the hell were we there? If we were just going to sit in the bloody car the entire time?” he ranted. “Could have stayed here and relaxed.”

“You wouldn’t have been happy if you’d have been left behind,” noted Giles as he walked in, smelling of smoke and with a large smudge of soot across his face.

Buffy walked up to her fiancé and gave him a kiss on the cheek. “It really smelled here anyway, according to Dawn. You would have had to help her clean up.”

Soon, the living room was housing the entire team, most of them smelling like smoke and something strange the Buffy couldn’t place. Molly curled up on the couch and uttered a total of three words before falling asleep. Anya sat herself down on Giles’ lap. Angel paced.

Graham was tied to a chair in the middle of the room. From her place on the floor by Willow’s feet, Dawn stared at her ex boyfriend. As the team started to tell Buffy and Anya what had happened after they were captured, Dawn wondered just how much this whole situation could have been avoided if she’d never gotten involved with him.

Graham was staring at the floor, a pitiful look on his face. Dawn supposed it meant that he’d given up on being released. She tried to pay attention to the conversation around her. Really she did. It wasn’t until she realised that she was about to start crying that she knew something had to be done about this.

“So it’s over?” Dawn asked the group, when a lull fell over their conversation.

“I doubt it!” Angel growled.

“But I think we can handle it from here,” noted Nate smugly. “I thank you for your assistance, but I feel that it would best if you and Mr. Wyndham-Price returned to Los Angeles.”

Angel glared at the watcher.

“I agree,” Wesley noted, standing from his place on the comfy chair. “I believe Gunn, Cordelia, and Fred would like us to return as soon as possible. Will one of you be returning for Andrew?”

A groan issued from the group.

“We’ll give you bus fare for the nerd,” responded Spike, reaching into his pocket for the cash.

Once he’d handed the fare to the LA watcher, silence permeated the living room once again.

“So it’s over?” Dawn asked again, this time struggling to keep the fact that she was on the verge of tears hidden.

“For now,” Buffy responded, looking at her sister with concern.

Dawn nodded slowly and watched Angel and Wesley head towards the door. No farewells were exchanged until they were half out the door.

“Your wedding invites will be in the mail!” Buffy shouted out to the two men.

“What do we do now?” Xander asked, very tired. “Please tell me sleep, ‘cause that’s high on my priority list.”

Dawn stood up from her place on the floor, and stepped towards Graham, drawing the eyes of everyone who was awake in the room. Swiftly Dawn drew out an exacto knife from her back pocket, one she had found while cleaning earlier in the day. Standing menacingly over her ex boyfriend, Dawn earned a few exclamations from her family. They didn’t know if she was going to kill him, or something else.

“Vengeance?” Anya asked, pleased.

“Dawn!” Xander gasped.

Before any of them could move towards her though, she had cut Graham free of his bonds and was pulling him towards the front door.

Giles and Spike added their own exclamations once they knew what her plan of action was.

Molly awoke to see Dawn and Graham disappear into a portal through the front door.

“Oh, right so the one time I take time to catch up on some much needed sleep, she decides to take matters into her own hands. Have you no control on your sister?” Molly complained.

“None whatsoever,” Buffy responded. “If she gets hurt again, I am not going to be a happy slayer though.”

“I hope she knows what she’s doing,” Nate added.

“I hope she’s careful,” said Tara quietly.
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Tbc…