Hello Readers This is my first Buffy story so i hope u like it as much as i do...

Dawn stood in the front hall waiting for Buffy to come through the large glass doors of their Rome apartment, it was 3.30 in the morning and Buffy was still not home. It was not like she was patrolling or anything, she hadn't done that since the Hellmouth swallowed Sunnydale and taking Spike along with it.

Dawn knew where Buffy was, the same place that she went ever night out with' "Morty". She would leave the apartment at 3 in the afternoon and not return till 4 the next morning and sleeps through to 2 in the afternoon at which time Dawn was still at work so seeing Buffy at all was increasingly difficult. Hence the sitting in the hall at 3.30 in the morning.Since there father had died a month ago in a fatal car crash things had only gotten worse cos now not only was Buffy grieving for a lost home, a lost love, a lost mother, many lost friends but now a lost Father. It accrued to Dawn that in her own grief Buffy had forgotten that for every person that she lost Dawn had lost too.

Dawn knew it was the loss of Spike that was hitting Buffy the hardest, it had gotten to the point that Buffy refused to acknowledge that he had ever existed but Dawn could see the pain in her eyes whenever she accidently let his name slip, so she was throwing herself on to another man and on to the bottle (the bottle more then the man).

The sound of a key in the front door jarred Dawn from her thoughts she looked up just in time to see Buffy walk through the door, it was more of a stumble then a walk in Dawns opinion but she knew that if she wanted to talk her sister then this was probably the only time she could get her.

"Dawwwnie" Buffy slurred "whats you dooooing ups this lates for"

"Where have you been Buffy?" Dawn asked a little too harshly, but Buffy didn't notice she was to busy trying to unbuckle one of her 6 inch stilettos while trying to remain upright. "We need to talk"

Buffy successful in removing one shoe walks with a stiletto still on into the lounge room and plonks herself down on one of the seats.

"Buffy, I'm going back to the states" Dawn said in a low voice "I can't do this anymore, it's to hard to watch u fade away in front of my eyes"

A Week later Dawn stood outside of the LAX, Angel had said that he would send somebody to pick her up but so far nothing. Dawn was hot and a bit sweat not to mention exusted, all she wanted was a cool shower and a soft pillow, she began digging round in her carry on for her cell phone upon finding it she looked up and scanned the fore of the airport what she thought she saw out of the corner of her eye shocked her to her very core.

The thing or more correctly person that Dawn thought she had seen made her look again and the second time round he was still there and by know standing directly in front of her, she couldn't breath.

"Bet you weren't expecting me now were you Niblit" Spike said in his ever arrogant manor "did you have a good flight"

Dawn said nothing she didn't even breathe in fear that he would disappear, she didn't even notice the man standing directly to Spike right who was staring at her in a was a starved man looks at a piece of meat.

"Cat got your tough bit" Spike asked sounding slightly amused. "These all your bags, don't travel little do ya''

"You're dead" Dawn whispered and felt herself become light headed and the world start to become a little blurry but before she could hit the ground a pair of strong arms rapped there way around her waist and held her weight. "Did the plane crash"

After that Dawn wasn't sure was happened because the world tilted then went black, she woke in a bed with Spike sitting beside her.

"Did I Die?" she whispered afraid of the reply. "Is Anya here to?"

"Your not dead bit and neither am I" he told her and as and after thought he added "sort of"

In the following hour Spike told Dawn the story of how he came back from the 'dead' and updated her on the inner workings of the fang gang of late. After he finished they sat in silence for awhile.

"How's Buffy" Spike asked so softly that Dawn almost missed it altogether.

Dawn rested her head against the pillow and looked at him

"That's the big question " she said and felt tears coming to her eyes she tried to hold them back but she couldn't quite make then stop "you know in the end it wasn't Anya or dad or the house or even mum that broke her, it was losing you."

"If your alive then why haven't you gone to her Spike" Dawn asked as she sat up and through her legs over the side of the huge four poster bed. "

"It isn't that simple Bit" Spike whispered back while staring at his shoe and looking unsettled "she's moved on"

TBC SOON i hope lol