Disclaimer: Joss owns ‘em, I just play.

Author's note: Much huggles to BTL who beta'd this!
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Chapter 11: Tension

The silence in the kitchen was deafening. Buffy idly wondered for a moment if she dropped a pin would they be able to hear it hit the floor. Shaking her head out of her musing, she glanced back around to see everyone still frozen in place. Graham looked Spike down, the vampire returning the glare of hatred. Dawn looked at Andrew with worry, while the basement dweller stared back at the man Dawn was holding hands with. Buffy stared at her sister trying to comprehend this turn of events.

This hadn’t happened the last time.

Well, I guess you aren’t safe from surprises until you are dead, reasoned Buffy to herself.

Someone had to diffuse this situation though. Buffy stepped closer to Dawn and her...hand holding partner.

“We were worried about you Dawn,” explained Buffy. “Andrew, why don’t you go phone Willow and Tara and tell them that Dawn’s been found, they are waiting to do a locator spell.”

Still staring at her sister, Buffy could hear Andrew’s disappointed huff as he walked off into the living room to find a phone not in the room of tension.

The waves of concern, hatred, and the need to do some violence coming off her mate was a serious concern, there didn’t need to be a fight in the kitchen. Breaking her stare with Dawn, Buffy looked at Spike sympathetically hoping that what she was feeling would help him realise that this wasn’t the best place for him to be at the moment.

A few tense moments later, Spike left the kitchen and headed up to their room.

Buffy turned back towards her sister and Graham.

“I won’t have the Initiative ruin our lives again,” started Buffy, looking at Graham. “If you are really here in an innocent military capacity, fine, I don’t believe it, but fine. If you are here to do experiments on demons, and generally screw up my life and the life of my family I suggest you leave now, before you break my sister’s heart and I break your neck.”

Graham looked a little uncomfortable for a fraction of a second and Buffy knew at once that the reason that had brought Riley’s friend back to Sunnydale wasn’t quite so innocent.

“My presence in Sunnydale is classified,” said the soldier.

“And yet, you aren’t being so covert. What did you to do today then? Or is that classified to? Did you get Dawn security clearance too? Gonna try to kill her too?”

“Buffy!” protested Dawn.

“No, of course not,” responded Graham with feeling.

“We just had coffee and went for a walk,” explained Dawn.

“Until after sunset?” asked Buffy sceptically.

“So?” said Dawn defiantly. “You did it when you were my age, if you remember being my age. And with someone that was much older than Graham is!” noted Dawn passionately, conquering Buffy’s next point of attack.

Buffy knew when she was defeated. She nodded her head and stepped back. “Fine, you have homework to do before high school tomorrow,” Buffy said pointedly before leaving the two to say their good byes in the kitchen.

In the living room, Andrew was staring at the phone dejectedly. Softly Buffy put her hand on Andrew’s shoulder.

“She’ll always be your friend Andrew, don’t you worry about that,” soothed Buffy.

With a nod and a fake smile, Andrew headed up to the second floor and closed himself in the bathroom.

Buffy sighed. Life was complicated enough without Graham making a cameo appearance. Buffy heard the back door close and Dawn rush up the stairs to her room. Forgoing the idea that she was the cool impartial big sister, Buffy bounded out of the house and easily caught up to Graham, heading down Revello Drive, as if he really was a normal guy who’d walked his date home.

“Graham?” Buffy called out to the solider.

As he turned she smiled friendly like.

“Look, that really didn’t go how I wanted it to,” he explained.

“How did you want it to go?” she asked, curious.

“Well not like that...”

“And what were you expecting? Dawn is only just 16. Forget it, she’s going to be throwing the age thing in my face forever. You hurt her, you’ll have two powerful witches, a master vampire, a vengeance demon, a slayer, her watcher, a boy who can summon demons, and a man who’s pretty handy with an axe after your ass...are you getting my drift?”

“I understand,” stated the soldier, processing the information.

“I don’t care what you’re into here in Sunnydale, but if we cross paths while I’m doing my job, to me, you aren’t an innocent civilian. Stay out of my way.”

And with that Buffy flounced back to her house to cuddle up with her grumpy vampire.
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Dawn was on a cloud. Graham had phoned her and they were going out for ice cream today after school. Spike was still grumpy. He didn’t like his nibblet mooning after a soldier boy. Andrew was sulking in the basement, putting his angst into Star Wars rpg’s. But Dawn was happy and Buffy liked it when Dawn was happy. She just hoped that this relationship didn’t take a bad turn. Like she was expecting it to.

By the time Buffy had returned home after her afternoon classes, Dawn had left for her ‘date’ with Graham. The perfect time to discuss the relationship in a calm and orderly Scooby fashion.

Around the dining room table Willow, Spike, Tara, Anya, Giles, and Xander sat as Buffy paced.

“He’s too old for her!” exclaimed Xander.

“Since when?” asked Anya. “Buffy went out with Angel, he was really older than she was. And since when are we confined to the ageist norms that this American society dictates? Dawn’s fully capable of making her own choices. In many cultures she’s of age to make her own decisions.”

“Thank you for the rant, Anya,” noted Buffy. “I agree, his age doesn’t have anything to do with it. It’s not why I’m worried. It’s just an excuse. He’s an Initiative soldier. We do all remember what happened the last time a Summers got involved with them.”

Xander nodded. “Just because they tried to kill you doesn’t mean they are going to try to kill Dawn,” added the carpenter.

“No, this time they might want to try to performing experiments on her,” interjected Spike.

“She’s human, they wouldn’t do that,” protested Willow. “Would they?”

“Dawn’s not a normal human. She’s still the Key, dimension hopping and all ,” Buffy reminded.

“I’ll bloody tear his bits and pieces off and feed them to him if he touches a hair on her head,” growled Spike ever so helpfully.

“I’m not leaving it up to chance. I want to know why they are here,” explained Buffy.

“They aren’t using the same underground facility under the university,” added Willow. “I’ve already started some checking.”

“They aren’t posing as TA’s this time either,” supplied Tara.

“It is possible that they have learned from their mistakes,” offered Giles looking thoughtful.

“They’ll be harder to catch in the act then,” noted Xander.

There was a knock at the door interrupting the group discussion and bringing the group out of their focus.

As Buffy was already up she padded to the door curiously. Everyone she knew was already in the house, or out for ice cream.

She opened the front door to find a teenage girl, probably fifteen or sixteen at the door, her curly brown hair barely held back by a black headband. Buffy looked into the girl’s eyes and knew at once who this was.

“Molly?”

The girl nodded. “You must be Buffy,” she greeted in a British accent. “My watcher’s parking his car. There wasn’t room in front of the house.”

It was true. With the Scooby meeting going on, the Desoto and the ford explorer took up the driveway, Xander and Giles’ cars parked out front.

“Come in,” offered Buffy. “Let me introduce you to everyone.”

Molly stepped through the door, letting Buffy shut it behind her. Buffy ushered the new slayer into the dining room and into the den of Scoobies.

“Everyone, Molly’s here,” explained Buffy as she entered the room.

Around the table there were waves from the girls and nods from the men.

“Introductions! Ok, we have Giles, my watcher,” began Buffy, as Giles stood to shake Molly’s hand.

“I’ve heard lots about you, Mr. Giles,” began Molly nervously. “My watcher thinks very highly of you.”

“Why, uh, thank you, Molly,” stammered Giles as he sat down again at his place.

“Next we have Willow and Tara,” continued Buffy.

“We’re witches,” explained Tara with a smile. “Here to help you with all your locator spell needs, and...and other things too.”

“This is Xander,” said Buffy after a pause.

Xander stood and offered his hand to Molly. “I rebuild the house,” he said with a smile. “No slayer should be without a carpenter friend who doesn’t charge for labour.”

“I pay him with beer,” noted Buffy. “And free access to the fridge. Moving on we have Anya...”

Anya stood up to shake hands with Molly too. “Vengeance Demon. Don’t slay me please. I don’t like pointy things shoved in my chest. It ruins my clothes.”

Molly looked askance at Buffy for a moment.

“Next we have Spike, you can’t slay him either,” noted Buffy.

“Why would I want to slay him?” asked Molly, suddenly very aware of just how hot Spike was.

“’Cause I’m a vampire, pet,” said the vampire in question with a curl of his tongue.

Buffy smacked him in the arm.

“Oy!” he protested his mistreatment, rubbing his arm. “What was that for?”

“No flirting with the other slayer!” hissed Buffy. “You’re mine!”

Spike smiled at her possessiveness before offering his hand to Molly. “Spike, fiancé of Buffy and all round big bad at your service.”

Xander snickered, earning him a smack on the head from Anya.
“So that’s everyone here. You still have to meet Andrew, he lives in the basement. Where is Andrew?” asked Buffy.

“Out buying comic books,” explained Spike.

“And last but not least, Dawn, my sister. She’s out on a date...”

“Or being experimented on as we speak,” noted Anya cheerfully.

“What?” asked Molly confused.

“I’ll explain it to you later,” offered Buffy. “So where is this watcher of yours?”

As if on cue the group heard a knock at the door. Buffy turned around to answer it. The door swung wide to reveal yet another complication to her life.

“Nate?”
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tbc...