---

Buffy let out a shocked gasp as she looked down at the chunk of wood protruding from her chest. She didn’t even feel it when Glory threw her aside like a piece of rubbish. Spike’s anguished scream registered on the edges of her consciousness, but she was in far too much pain to try to find him and reassure him.

Glory let out a groan of disappointment when Buffy didn’t dust. She had really wanted to see the Slayer turn to ash. But on the bright side, it was always fun to watch someone linger. She let a satisfied smile spread across her lips as she watched the wounded Slayer struggle to breathe while her vampire lover gathered her in his arms.

Giles and Xander threw themselves at the powerful hellgod, not caring that she could snap them like twigs with a simple flick of her wrist. Their blows didn’t even slow her movements as she advanced on Dawn. She simply swatted them away with one powerful blow, sending them both crashing into Anya.

~*~~*~~*~

Willow watched the scene in horror. She could see Anya, Xander and Giles crumpled up on the floor like Glory’s discarded playthings. Spike and Tara were trying to help Buffy. Willow realized with a start that she was all they had left. She had to try and stop Glory before she could get to Dawn. Willow’s eyes instantly turned black as ink as she stepped in front of the infuriated blonde.

Glory simply looked at her like she was a bug that needed to be crushed. “Ooh, the witch. I was hoping I’d see you.”

Willow tilted her head to the side and gave her a malevolent smile. “Is that right?” She watched Glory take a step closer to her. Willow simply shoved her hand out and shouted, “FREEZE!” Glory stopped dead in her tracks.

Glory let out a frustrated growl as she pushed against the invisible bonds that held her in place. “Is that it? Is that all you’ve got? How long do you think this will hold me before I break free and rip out your heart?”

Willow lowered her head and simply muttered, “Pain.”

Glory let out an agonizing scream as unseen razors slashed at her body, sending tiny tendrils of blood dripping down her motionless form. In the blink of an eye she burst her way past her unseen restraints, quickly advancing on the redheaded witch. “You better have more then that, witch bitch!”

Willow stood her ground, giving the rapidly advancing hellgod a cold stare. “Excudo!” With a bright flash, two bolts of lightning shot out of Willows fingers, throwing Glory across the room.

~*~~*~~*~

Chest aching and breathing painfully, Buffy watched in amazement as Glory flew through the air, smashing into a nearby wall with a loud thump. God how she wanted to help, but she just couldn’t seem to shake the pain…

~*~~*~~*~

Glory leapt to her feet in a fit of rage, grabbing the nearest thing to hand and hurling it at Willow. Unfortunately for the hellbitch, it just happened to be Buffy’s weapons chest. With a simple flick of her wrist, Willow muttered, “strigo!” and froze the projectile only inches from her head. In a cold commanding voice she uttered, “hisco,” opening the chest to reveal the abundance of weapons stored within it. “Impedtus!” she once again commanded, sending a plethora of axes, swords, stakes, and knives careening towards Glory.

With movement too fast for the eye to see, Glory scattered the flying projectiles across the room, imbedding several knives into the surrounding walls. With a feral growl, the maddened hellgod once again advanced on Willow. “Cute trick…. but that’s all you have isn’t it, witch?! Just a whole lot of tricks, but you can’t stop me--no one can.”

“We’ll see about that!” Willow snapped.

Glory snorted. “What?! What are you gonna do? Throw the silverware next?” she hissed.

Willow gave her a cold smile. “No. I was thinking of something a little larger.”


~*~~*~~*~


Spike and Tara struggled to keep Buffy still as she pulled the wood from her chest and sat up.

“Buffy, pet… you have to keep still,” Spike urged as he tried to get Buffy to lie back down.

“H-he’s right, Buffy, you’re hurt…” Tara pleaded, pressing a cloth over Buffy’s wound.

Buffy looked over at Spike and Tara. “No… I feel fine… Willow needs help.”

“Buffy, you’re in shock. Lay down for me, luv,” Spike said as he tried to push her down.

Buffy shook her head and pulled Tara’s hand away from her chest. “No… I’m fine!”

“Buffy, you’ve been staked. You are NOT fine! You’re bloody lucky to even be alive,” Spike growled in distress.

“She needs me,” Buffy protested.

Spike looked over his shoulder in time to see Willow throw the couch at Glory with only a simple flick of her wrist. “Looks to me like she’s doin’ fine all by herself, pet.”

Buffy took a ragged breath as pain coursed through her chest. “She can’t keep it up. Someone has to help her.”

Spike clenched his jaw in frustration. He knew Buffy was right, but the last thing he wanted to do was leave her side. However, Dawn needed him. Gritting his teeth in determination, he turned to Tara. “Look after her.”

Tara nodded her head in understanding and returned her attention to Buffy’s wounds.

~*~~*~~*~

Glory was beyond furious. She gripped the edge of the couch and threw it through the front window, the hole in the house suddenly allowing the room to be enveloped by a bright stream of sunlight.

Spike let out a painful hiss when the unexpected light hit his exposed skin, and he mentally thanked Willow for having the foresight to make the protection satchel that he wore around his neck. His skin felt like it was going to boil off his bones, but the sun didn’t cause any physical burns. Pushing himself to work far past his extremely high pain threshold, Spike threw himself at Glory, repeatedly hitting her with the poker from the fireplace. Glory all but ignored Spike’s efforts, simply shrugging him off and walking past him as though he was nothing more than an annoying germ. Her attention was directed more towards the annoying little redheaded witch.

Glory stomped towards Willow, murder burning in her eyes. “I swear I’m gonna rip out your ribs and crucify you with them, you little worm! Who the hell do you think you’re dealing with? I’m Glorificus, ruler of Argon, bringer of hellfires and destruction!”

Willow glared at Glory with ink black eyes. “Yeah? Well, you’re not in Argon anymore, Toto!” With that, she threw a blast of energy at Glory, throwing her clean across the room.

~*~~*~~*~

Spike watched gleefully as Glory once again flew through the air, colliding with a wall. His excitement was short-lived, however, because when he returned his attention to Willow his chest constricted in fear–she was spent. Clearly, all of her powers had been drained by her last attack. Out of the corner of his eye he could see Glory pulling herself to her feet; she looked completely insane with fury as she stomped over to Willow’s exhausted body. Spike made another charge, attempting to take the goddess out with a low kick to her knees; Glory, however, had seen the move coming and kicked him solidly in the chest, sending him crashing into the wall.

“Is that all you’ve got? Weak. Very, very weak, when here I was thinking you might actually have some power. Turns out all you had was a bunch of party tricks.” Glory gave Willow a savage kick, sending her flying across to the opposite wall. “You’re not even worth my time,” she said coldly before once again turning her attention to Dawn. “You, on the other hand… Now, you are worth my time.”

Dawn gave a small whimper as she watched Glory calmly walk towards her.

Spike let out a feral growl before launching himself from his crumpled position and charging towards Glory, punching her savagely in the face several times before she grabbed him by the throat, picking him up and throwing him on top of Xander and Giles, who were once again attempting to advance on the hellgod.

Glory snorted in disgust. “Vampires!” Stomping over to Dawn, she said in a sickly sweet tone, “Time to leave sweetheart. Momma’s goin’ home.”

~*~~*~~*~
Tara could no longer force herself to remain still; she rose to her feet, yelling, “Illuminate!” instantaneously blinding Glory with supernatural light.

Glory shook her head, trying to clear her vision. She could still see the outline of Dawn’s figure cowering in the corner. The goddess made a grab for Dawn, blinking her eyes several times before her vision began to clear.

Dawn screamed as she pressed her back against the wall, trying to shrink away from the hellgod’s grip.

Glory let out a weak gasp as she tried to shake off her dizziness. The moment she made a grab for her key, she immediately felt weak, as though something was draining her of her strength. Nearly snarling with rage, she cast a hateful look at Willow. *The witch must have done a protection spell. That sneaky little conniving bitch.* Glory let out a harsh growl as she pulled her hand away from Dawn. *Well, I guess I get to crucify me a witch after all,* she thought excitedly, a small smile spreading across her lips at this thought.

Buffy was on her feet in an instant, lightly pushing Tara aside as she watched Glory throw her friends aside as she advanced on Dawn. Everything seemed to move in slow motion. She could see Glory reach into the protection shield, intent on pulling Dawn out. She saw Glory’s face distort in weakness as she encountered the barrier. Buffy instantly grabbed Olaf’s troll hammer and ran towards the hellgod, ignoring the rush of pain that exploded through her chest when she lifted the unbelievably heavy hammer over her head; she had inadvertently reopened her rapidly healing chest wound, but she knew that all was lost unless she followed through with her blow. In the blink of an eye she brought the hammer down on Glory’s back, knocking the unsuspecting hellgod to the ground.

Buffy gritted her teeth together as she swung the hammer down on Glory again. “Get the hell away from my sister!”

Glory gasped in surprise and pain as she looked up at her attacker. *What was it with these vampires? They didn’t burst into flames when they went into the sun, and they don’t die when you stake them…* Glory’s thoughts were cut short when Buffy struck her again, splitting her lip open from the force of the blow. Glory struggled to pull herself to her feet, only to be knocked back down again.

Buffy let out a small growl as she struck the hellgod again and again. She could hear Glory’s strangled cries of pain, but they fell on deaf ears. She simply couldn’t allow the nearly-crippled hellgod any sympathy, not after the hell she had put Buffy and her friends through over the last few months. A sinister grin, full of the bloodlust that Buffy freely channelled from her demon, broke upon her face and managed to send a chill through the once-proud goddess’ heart. This wasn’t just defeating an enemy; this was payback time.

“This is for hurting my friends,” Buffy growled as she brought the hammer down on Glory’s chest.

“And this is for scaring my sister.” //WHACK//

“This is for torturing Spike.” //WHACK//

“This is for sending a giant snake after us.” //WHACK//

“This is for your creepy minions.” //WHACK//

“And for staking me.” //WHACK//

“And this is for destroying my house!”

As Buffy struck Glory for the last time, she saw the hellgod begin to shimmer; after a moment and right before Buffy’s very eyes she again watched as Glory morphed into Ben.

Buffy let out a muffled cry as she dropped the hammer on the ground, collapsing onto the floor in relief. Tears stung her eyes as she looked over at Ben’s brutally beaten body. She could hear his wet gasps for breath as he struggled to draw air into his battered lungs. Every square inch of his body was stained with blood and bruises; his eyes were swollen shut, and his bottom lip looked like he’d placed it into a meat grinder. He was a mess.

Buffy felt physically ill. She’d done this to him, and somewhere in the back of her mind she was rejoicing at the sight of the carnage caused by her own hand. She couldn’t move. She proved to be so lost in her desperate reflections, that she had hardly even noticed it when Spike gathered her up in his arms and hugged her like there would be no tomorrow.

Spike was overwhelmed by the feeling of utter relief that had taken over his brain functions; so many raw emotions coursed through his body that he was sure he wouldn’t accomplish intelligent thought again for days. He held on to Buffy with all of his strength, afraid that she might turn to dust if he was to let her go. The horrible vision of her lying on the ground with a strake protruding from her chest was all too real, and his knees went weak as he realized exactly what they’d just barely avoided. He’d come so terrifyingly close to losing her. The wet choking noises made by Ben as the man gasped for breath finally broke Spike out of his haunting thoughts. As he looked over at the mangled man, he couldn’t help the surge of blinding anger that arose within him; he wanted to tear the fucker’s head off for what he’d done to Buffy and Dawn.

Willow slowly pulled herself to her feet and looked down upon Ben’s broken body. She couldn’t believe that she could hold so much hatred for this poor innocent man. She knew that he was not to blame for any of the bloodshed caused by Glory’s hands, but even that knowledge didn’t make being in his presence any easier. She stared at him with blank eyes for a moment until the sound of Dawn’s voice broke her out of her reverie.

“Can someone let me out please?” Dawn asked from behind the protective shield.

Willow gave a small, detached nod and waved her hand towards Dawn. “End!”

With that simple word, the shield melted away as though it had never been there. Dawn gave a small squeal as she ran across to Buffy and Spike, wrapping her arms around them as she began to weep with relief. Buffy briefly pulled free from Spike in order to pull Dawn into a strong, elated hug.

“I-Is h-he alright?” Tara asked as she looked down at Ben’s broken body.

“He looks pretty bad to me, and I should know--I’ve done a few eviscerations in my time,” Anya stated matter-of-factly as she looked down at Ben. “On the plus side, though: if he dies, there’s no more Glory.”

“No! No one dies!” Buffy said in a commanding voice. “Will, are you up to doing the binding spell?”

Willow nodded her head. “Yeah… I think so.”

“Okay, do it.” Buffy turned to the rest of the group. “Is everyone alright? Nothing broken?”

Everyone nodded their heads and murmured their okays. Satisfied that her friends were unharmed, Buffy turned back to Dawn, giving her a concerned look. “Are you okay?”

Dawn nodded her head. “Yeah, I’m fine… ” Tears started to roll down her cheeks as she wrapped her arms around Buffy. “I thought she’d killed you… I saw her stake you… and… and I thought you were dead.”

Buffy gave Dawn a light squeeze. “So did I… But I’m okay… Everything’s going to be okay from now on, I promise.”

Willow and Tara crouched down next to Ben’s prone body, carefully scattering the spell ingredients around him, chanting all the while in an ancient language.

Willow turned her attention to several candles placed around Ben. Taking a deep calming breath, she began the spell. “Goddess Hecate, hear my plea. We ask of your divinity blessings in our hour of need. What was will be again, and what is will be no more.” Once all the candles were lit, Willow and Tara linked hands, allowing them to funnel their powers together. “Glorificus, I hereby bind you. I bind you within. I bind you from causing harm. Glorificus, by the power of Hecate, I bind you within this prison of flesh and bone. I bind you from this world, or from any other. I bind you. As this crystal turns black you shall be bound for all eternity, never to return. I hereby bind you.” As Willow spoke the last words of the spell, a crackle of energy filled the room, causing the crystal to turn black.

Willow let out an exhausted sigh as she looked down at crystal in her hand, knowing that this was the last remains of Glory.

“Did it work?” Dawn asked nervously.

Willow nodded her head. “Yeah,” she said, looking down once again at the crystal before handing it to Dawn. “Do you want to do the honours?”

Dawn looked at the crystal as if it might bite. “What do you mean?”

“This is Glory’s only escape from her prison… without this crystal she’s trapped for all eternity.”

Dawn gave Willow a nervous look. “What do you want me to do with it?”

“Smash it,” Willow said with a small smile. “No more crystal, no more Glory.”

Dawn let a smile spread across her lips as she took the crystal from Willow. She stared at it for a moment before dropping it to the floor and stamping on it with the heel of her boot, shattering it into a thousand pieces. “That’s it…?”

Willow smiled as she pulled herself up on shaky legs. “That’s it. No more Glory.”

“Well, that’s good. I for one was getting very annoyed with her constant interruptions. Xander has been so worked up over this whole mess that he hasn’t given me any orgasms in two days, and it been very inconvenient to say the least,” Anya said matter-of-factly.

Xander turned bright red as all eyes turned to him. “Ahn, remember our little talk about our private life being private?”

Anya simply shrugged her shoulders. “I was just pointing out that this has all been very intrusive in our lives.”

Giles rolled his eyes. “Yes, I’m certain that we’re all very sorry that the possibility of the world being sucked into hell has interfered with your sex life.”

Anya gave Giles a bright smile. “Oh, don’t blame yourself. I’m sure we’ll have plenty of make up sex tonight.”

Buffy couldn’t help but laugh at Xander when he turned an even brighter shade of red with embarrassment.

Tara turned to Willow with a shy smile, only to watch all of the colour drain from her cheeks. “Willow, sweetie, are you okay?”

Willow didn’t answer. She just took several deep breaths before collapsing. Spike was by her side as soon as her breathing changed, hurrying to catch her before she hit the floor. “’S alright, Red. I’ve got you.”

“What’s wrong with her?” Buffy asked in a panicked voice, running over to where her best friend was lying in her sire’s arms.

“She’s just exhausted,” Tara said as she lovingly brushed her hand over Willow’s cheek. “The spells took a lot out of her, and then the fight with Glory...”

Buffy gave Tara a comforting look before turning to Spike. “Can you take her up to mom’s room? She can rest there.”

Spike nodded in agreement and carried Willow’s exhausted body upstairs, Tara close on his heels the whole way.

The sounds of Ben’s strained gasps for breath jolted Buffy back to attention. She quickly turned back to see Giles and Xander attending to the injured man. “Giles, we need to get him to the hospital. Like, now!”

Giles nodded in agreement, wrapping a blanket around Ben’s battered body. “Yes, I know. Xander, can you help me carry him out to the car?”

“Sure,” Xander answered without hesitation.

Buffy glanced over at Anya, seeing that she was holding her arm, and rubbing a large, already purpling bruise that was steadily forming on her bicep. “Maybe you should go with them, too? You look a little damaged yourself.”

Anya gave Buffy a small nod and a smile and followed Giles and Xander out to the car, leaving Buffy and Dawn alone in the living room.

“Maybe you should go with them, too,” Dawn said as she looked at Buffy’s blood-stained clothes. “I mean, you did just have a chunk of wood jammed into your chest.”

Buffy gave Dawn a small smile. “Nah… I’m fine, just a little sore.”

“You sure?” Dawn asked, clearly concerned and not quite convinced by her sister’s denials.

“Yes, I’m sure. Look—I’ve already started to heal,” Buffy said as she pulled her top aside to show Dawn the rapidly healing wound.

Dawn looked at the gaping hole in Buffy’s chest with morbid fascination. “Ewww, gross…” When she looked closer, she noticed that she could see the wound healing right before her eyes; she watched with interest as new skin began to knit over the tender injury. “Wow… I-I can see you heal… that’s so cool! Can you feel it? I mean you have to feel it, right?”

Buffy smiled as she looked down at her chest. “Yeah, I can feel it… It kinda itches.”

Dawn looked up at Buffy. “This is amazing. It’s like watching one of those documentaries they show on the Discovery Channel. You know, the ones where they use all the time-lapse photography?”

Buffy just laughed at her sister’s comment and morbid enthusiasm. “See, getting staked through the chest not only creates good wholesome entertainment--it’s also educational!”

“Not exactly my idea of good wholesome fun, pet,” Spike said as he descended the stairs and walked over to where Buffy and Dawn stood. “You near frightened me into my second death.” As he spoke he wrapped his arms around Buffy’s shoulders, pulling her into a crushing but still tender hug. “Don’t do that again,” he whispered lovingly as he kissed the top of her head.

Buffy let out a small contented sigh, sinking further into Spike’s embrace. “Okay…”

Dawn couldn’t contain herself any longer. Closing the distance between them, she threw her arms around the two vampires she loved more than anything else in the world. Spike instantly responded to the feel of Dawn’s embrace, gently removing one of his strong arms from around Buffy’s shoulders and wrapping it around Dawn.

For several moments the threesome simply held each other until Buffy broke the silence. She gently pulled away from Spike and looked into his beautiful blue eyes, giving a momentary thought to the realization that she could drown in those eyes if she would allow herself to. Shaking away the beautiful thoughts for the moment, she asked, “How’s Willow?”

Spike responded by lightly pressing his lips to her forehead before pulling back and looking into her eyes. “She’s fine, luv…. Just worn out ‘s all.” At that moment Spike glanced around the room and noticed that only Buffy and the Bit were there. “Where are the others?”

“They took Ben to the hospital,” Buffy answered sombrely, taking a step back out of the embrace to gaze around the destroyed front room. As she moved, Spike was suddenly assaulted by the smell of her fresh blood.

“You’re still bleeding?”

Buffy shrugged. “Yeah, a little.”

“Right then, let’s get you patched up,” he said, pulling free from Dawn and marching into the kitchen to get the first aid kit.

Buffy gave Dawn an amused smile and followed Spike into the kitchen to be ‘patched up.’

The two sisters walked in to find Spike emptying practically everything out of the first aid kit onto the kitchen counter. Buffy plopped herself down on one of the chairs surrounding the counter. “Okay, Doctor Spike, patch me up.”

Spike raised his eyebrow at her, curling his tongue behind his teeth for an instant as he gave her a heated look. “Have to play that game later, Slayer,” he whispered against her ear before pulling back and giving her a simple smile and placing a small kiss on her forehead. “Okay, pet, lift up your top.”

Buffy complied without hesitation, lifting her blood-drenched top out of the way, only to flinch in pain when the movement reopened her rapidly healing wound. “Ow… Dammit!”

“You okay, luv?”

Buffy nodded her head dully. “Yeah…” She took a couple of deep breaths before regaining her composure. “You know, getting staked… Not as fun as it sounds.”

“Yeah, I remember.” Spike said absently as he looked at Buffy’s wound.

“What… Huh? When did you get staked? I mean, I did it that time with the Ring, but that SO didn’t hurt you… so how did you get staked and not go all dusty?” Buffy asked in confusion.

“Couple months back, your soldier boy paid me a visit before he left and staked me with a bloody plastic stake. Hurt like a son-of-a-bitch.”

“Riley staked you?” Buffy gasped, shocked. “Why?”

Spike snorted. “’Cause I fancied you. And ‘cause I told you what he was up to at that vamp whorehouse. Stupid ponce goes out and pays to get bled, and he blames me for tellin’ you ‘bout it.”

“Oh. I’m so sorry,” was all Buffy could say. Riley had tried to kill Spike… or at least had tortured him; that just wasn’t right. And Riley had known that Spike was in love with her, and so had Dawn. Has she been the only one who hadn’t known? Her rambling thoughts were cut abruptly short as pain lanced through her chest as the accompaniment to Spike’s prodding of the injury with a pair of tweezers. She let out a sharp hiss, tightly gripping Spike’s shoulder as she waited for the pain to subside.

“Sorry, luv…. got to get all the splinters out,” he murmured apologetically, giving her hand a gentle squeeze. Buffy just nodded her head in understanding and waited for Spike to continue attending to her wound. “You okay, luv?”

Buffy took a couple of deep breaths before answering. “Yeah, are you done yet?” she finished hopefully.

“’Fraid not, kitten… Still need to clean it.” He picked up a bottle of disinfectant, splashing a large amount onto a clean cloth.

Buffy eyed the cloth hesitantly, knowing just how much that liquid would hurt.

“Ready?’’ he asked, placing a comforting hand on her shoulder.

Buffy swallowed heavily and once again grabbed hold of Spike’s arm. “Just make it quick.”

Spike nodded, and quickly ran the cloth over the healing wound. Buffy tensed in pain as the disinfectant sank into the tender flesh. Her grip on his arm tightened as her true demon visage came forth. Before Buffy even realized what she was doing, she pulled Spike’s wrist to her mouth and savagely bit down, drawing in the exquisite taste of her sire’s blood and the comfort that came along with the connection.

Once the pain subsided, Buffy loosened her grip on Spike’s arm. She didn’t release his wrist, however, instead she continuing to lightly sweep her tongue over the puncture wounds, relishing the comforting taste.

Spike’s eyes flashed gold, and his jeans quickly became too tight. It took him a moment to remember what he was doing, and an even longer moment to remember where he was and who else was present. Hell, at that moment it would have been hard for him to remember his name; her actions were blinding him with lust and need, and he couldn’t help but think that Xander and Anya weren’t the only ones who had some lost time to make up for. Pulling up all of his reserves of willpower, he focused on finishing the cleaning of Buffy’s wound even as she continued to drive him to distraction with the feeling of her warm, sweet tongue sweeping over the fresh puncture marks on his wrist.

Dawn watched, wide-eyes, as the scene unfolded around her, holding back a shocked gasp as she watched her sister bite into Spike’s wrist. Her eyes shot to his face, wondering if Buffy was hurting him, but the most amazing look of pleasure washed over Spike’s face, and she thought that she might actually have heard him purr. It was amazing to watch--so dangerous and predatory, and at the same time beautiful and loving, perhaps even erotic—and wasn’t she WAY too young to be thinking like this, not to mention the ick factor of thinking it about her sister and her might-as-well-be brother.

The sound of Dawn’s quickening pulse was enough to finally remind Spike that he and Buffy were not alone. “You alright, Nibblet?” he asked, taking in Dawn’s wide-eyed expression.

Dawn swallowed heavily, flushing a bit in embarrassment before shifting her eyes so that her gaze was centred directly on Spike. “S-she bit you!” she exclaimed lamely, and then shot her gaze to the side so that she looked directly at Buffy. “You bit him!”

Buffy flushed with embarrassment, while Spike simply shrugged. “Yeah, she did, Nibblet. ‘s nothin’ to worry ‘bout.”

Dawn blinked in amazement. “You mean it’s normal?”

Spike laughed. “Yeah, it’s normal, ‘specially since big sis here just got staked an’ all. Sis needed comfort, an’ that’s the easiest way for her to get it in that situation. She wasn’t tryin’ to hurt me… she was just hungry and hurting.”

Dawn nodded her head, beginning to understand, and watched in silence as Spike finished taping a clean gauze pad over Buffy’s wound. “Are you okay?”

Buffy gave her sister a small reassuring smile. “Yeah, I’m fine, Dawnie. Just a little tired.”

Dawn gave Buffy a sympathetic smile before throwing her arms around her sister’s neck, taking care not to jar her injured chest. “Thanks for saving me… ”

A single tear rolled down Buffy’s cheek at the sound of Dawn’s heartfelt thank you. She quickly returned the embrace and placed a soft kiss on her forehead. “Did you really think that I’d EVER let that hellbitch get her hands on you?”

Dawn pulled away from Buffy’s embrace, looking her straight in the eyes. “No… If a stake through the heart can’t slow you down, I guess she never really had a chance.”

Buffy let out a small laugh as she jumped off the kitchen counter. “Damn straight! No piece of wood was gonna stop me from kicking that skank’s butt.”

“Didn’t have to test the theory, luv,” Spike mumbled.

Buffy shrugged before crossing to him and wrapping her arms around his waist. “Wasn’t exactly part of my master plan, either,” she whispered reassuringly, pressing a chaste kiss to his lips.