Note: Thanks to my beta t_geyer for her unending patience, perseverance and support.

SECTION 3 - MY LAST BREATH

Hold on to me love
You know I can't stay long
All I wanted to say was
I love you and I'm not afraid


(Evanescence - Album - Fallen)




Chapter 3.05
Monday, May 27th, 2002


"Heyy!!" Cordelia's strident tones drew the sleeping pair back to wakefulness. "I'm pretty sure all those people who tell the two of you to get a room didn't mean a hospital room that you're sharing with your sister..."

Spike wiped sleep from his eyes and focused his attention on the one-time brunette turned not so stunning blonde. "Given as at least one of us is fully dressed an' there's blankets an' stuff in between us, I don't see as that remark is called for." He didn't bother to argue for long though, as he climbed ungracefully off Buffy's bed to check on Dawn before his fiancée could even ask.

"Still the same, love," he told her.

"And that would be why I'm here... Other than to let you know we're all hightailing it back to LA."

"Why you're here?" Buffy asked.

As Cordelia explained she tried to push back sleeves that weren't really there. "I didn't actually see what happened... but I think from what Angel told me that maybe there might be something I can do."

She reached out and placed the fingertips of either hand so that they weren't so much resting on Dawn's temples as very slightly in them. As the blonde couple watched it was as if a light came from within the former cheerleader, getting gradually brighter until she was enveloped in an almost rosy glow which spread to encompass the younger Summers sister. Then, the brightest spot at the centre of Cordy's chest seemed to move up her body and split in two before each bright spot streaked along her outstretched arms, giving her hands a deep pink hue for an instant before it left her body and entered Dawn's. Cordelia stepped back as all the monitors around the girl went haywire and the girl's body convulsed as if she had received an electric shock.

"What the blue blazes-." Spike started to give the seer a bawling out, but then he saw Dawn's eyelids flicker open and her lips form into a smile at the sight of Spike and her sister.

"Guess you guys are going to have to buy me a season ticket for this place..." the teenager joked weakly as she recognised her surroundings.

---

"Do you want to tell me why someone who can't carry anything is supposed to be helping you get coffee?"

"I didn't say we were just getting coffee. I said we were getting beverages . That means you get to be look out while I find dinner. An' besides, it gives Bit and Buffy a few minutes to themselves now that all those nurses you brought rushing in with your little party trick have gone and I want to know what the hell you just did to that girl."

"Willow drained Dawn's energy among others. Most of it was used to get rid of whatever was inside me, but I still caught some of the backwash, so while you and Dawn passed out because you didn't have enough energy, in my case I got a massive overload. I just redistributed the excess back to her. I don't really know exactly how the whole glowy thing works yet... but..."

"But Dawn's back in the land of the living again. So thanks, princess."

"I'll see that thanks and double it, what with the whole rescuing and... everything." She hesitated but then went on. "I don't think I'm going to get a chance to speak to Buffy alone, not the way she was holding onto Dawn like she was her favourite Gucci handbag. Will you tell her I'm really sorry about Willow? I know how it feels to lose a friend under these sort of circumstances and I'll make sure the sacrifice she made isn't forgotten and I'll try to make good use of the life she's given me..." The girl shrugged, her sincerity and her embarrassment both equally obvious. "And, if you think up any more clichés just tell her those as well but I've really gotta go. Skip got loose and he cracked a few of Gunn's ribs and gave him a concussion before he left. They're keeping him in hospital overnight for observation and Fred's gonna be worried sick until she actually sees him for herself. She's waiting in the car with Angel."

"Better get the twiglet back to her man, then." Spike gave her a reassuring smile.

"Ehm... I don't suppose you could escort me back to the parking lot? ...When we're done robbing the bloodbank or whatever it is that you have in mind, that is. People get kinda upset when I go through doors for some reason."

---

"The younger girl just came around."

"Thank you." Quentin replaced the receiver and resumed his contemplation of the ceremony he had witnessed earlier. It was possible that when he finally received a report from the two renegades that it would explain what had happened but he doubted it. It was more likely that the pair would produce some plausible fabrication.

'Just why, when there was both a slayer and a supernatural creature there, did the witch target a child to draw energy from? Why when the power available from almost the entire body of The Council's spellcasters and a sizeable portion of the power from one of the most respected covens in England failed to make a dent did the power from the girl have such devastating effect? What had the vampire done to cause the visible change in the energy that was drawn from the two? ...And possibly even more intriguingly... Why?'

"It appears the younger Miss Summers is back with us, despite the sort of power drain that would have had an experienced and powerful spell user in a coma for months. What is your opinion on that?" Quentin picked up a crystal tumbler from the side table next to his leather wingback armchair and looked over to where Lydia sat behind her wide mahogany desk with its pristine and obsolete blotter.

"I don't have an opinion, yet. My viewpoint was rather subjective... though I have to admit that unless the girl is more than she appears it does seem difficult to understand why Miss Rosenberg was the only fatality."

"Factor in the military's interest in the girl and I think we're likely to find Rupert and Wesley have been keeping secrets from us." The man seemed to contemplate the aroma from his whisky as he thought before he turned to the woman once more.

"You made some sort of assignation with young Wesley, did you not?"

"Well... em... we didn't make any definite arrangements," the blonde sputtered her embarrassment at being caught going behind her mentor's back.

"Make them," Quentin instructed her in no uncertain terms. "And make them soon. If The First Evil is about to make some sort of power play, we can't afford to have unknowns in the equation."

"What about Faith, then?"

"Rest assured, I know exactly where our little jailbird is."

---

Even though it was barely dusk, Tara climbed into the bed that she had once shared with Willow and opened the folder of notes for the exam she should take in less than two days time. The gathering at Xander's apartment hadn't lasted long, the man's inability to completely accept the truth of what had happened making it uncomfortable for his visitors to stay. Tara had used the others' incapacity as an excuse to come home and see to Rogue. Wes and Giles had left around the same time, the pair citing the need to get their cover story straight before they wrote their separate reports. Tara was guessing that this was a euphemistic way of saying that Wes wanted an explanation of what had actually happened, since it seemed unlikely he had ever been told the full story of The Key and its significance.

She looked at the words in front of her, trying to force her brain to make some sort of sense of them, rather than dwelling on the day's events. Soon, however, she was unable to see the words through the blur of her tears. The silent tears turned to sobs and as if alerted by the faint sounds there was a tremendous clatter on the stairs, followed by a thud against her door as Rogue stood on her hind legs so that she could use her weight to push it open.

A shaggy form scrambled onto the bed alongside the woman. A damp nose pushed into her face, brown eyes seeming puzzled at the noises she made. Then, a huge pink tongue flicked out to lick the salt from her cheeks. The dog intuitively seemed to understand that one of her people needed her and didn't even squirm away when Tara held her far tighter than could have been comfortable.