OoSooM-Chapter Four

NOTE: THIS CHAPTER CONTAINS ONE SPIKE/DAWN KISS. IF YOU FIND THAT OBJECTIONABLE, DON'T READ IT. Just a kiss, though, `kay? I'm not into kiddie porn.

Spike regained consciousness with a groan, wincing as he sat up, dislodging the kitchen table from atop his body.

A soft whimper caught his attention, and he headed in Dawn's direction, his chest tightening at the thick smell of blood in the air.

Dawn looked up at him, her face chalk-white, eyes slightly glazed in what had to be shock. “Spike, I can't feel my legs,” she whimpered. “Why can't I feel my legs?”

With a sinking feeling in his gut, Spike patted her hand comfortingly, his eyes roving over her body in search of injuries, stopping cold once he reached her waist.

Most of the wall had collapsed, half-burying Dawn beneath the rubble, and Spike took an unneeded breath as he realized that where the sheet-rock was embedded in her body, it was the only thing holding her together.

That was why the scent of blood was so thick in the air. The momentum of the falling wall had sliced the petite girl in half, and its presence was the only thing that kept her from bleeding out.

“Spike?” Dawn's voice brought him back from his despairing revelation and he tried to keep his knowledge from his face as he looked at her.

“You're hurt, Nibblet,” he told her. “Just stay put `til the ambulance gets here, alright, luv?”

Apparently seeing something in his face, Dawn looked down her body, her eyes widening as she reached the same conclusion Spike had. “Oh,” she said meekly.

Spike felt the sting of tears at the sudden fear on Dawn's face, and he squeezed her hand gently. “Shh, luv. It'll be okay.”

“I'm dying, Spike,” Dawn said softly, removing any doubt that she was aware of the situation she was in. “Stay with me?” she implored, her voice small and afraid.

“ `Course, Dawn,” Spike assured her, aching to hold her, but knowing that removing the sheet rock from her would most likely cause her unspeakable agony. He may not have to worry about the chip frying his brain anymore, but the thought of causing her more pain made him nauseous.

Scooting behind her, he gently, carefully lifted her just enough to hold her head and shoulders in his lap, running his fingers through her hair reassuringly, his other hand still clasped with her smaller one.

“What really happened to the little girl that was hiding in the coal bin?” Dawn asked him. “You didn't really take her to an orphanage, did you?”

Dawn grinned. “Thought so,” she said smugly, then frowned slightly. “Spike?”

“I'm scared,” she admitted, her voice a near-whisper. “I know I'm not real. I know the monks made me up. But, I'm still scared.”

“Shh, luv. You are too real,” he told her. “Just because you were made instead of born doesn't change that. You're still real, still Buffy's little sister. Don't you ever doubt it.”

“Thanks,” Dawn told him gratefully, then winced, her face tightening with pain.

“Nibblet?” Spike asked quietly, squeezing her hand gently as she rode out the wave of pain.

“God…Spike, it hurts,” she gasped out, tears trailing down her cheeks as the shock began to wear off, taking the numbness with it.

Spike carefully maneuvered her head out of his lap, stretching out on his side next to her so that they were face-to-face, ignoring the warm wetness of blood as it seeped through his jeans where he lay. He brushed her hair away from her eyes, stroking her cheek gently. “Shh, luv. I'm here.”

She whimpered again, the sound tearing at the blonde vampire's unbeating heart. “Spike…I…I want to ask a favor,” she gritted out.

“Name it, Nibblet,” Spike told her, still caressing her cheek lightly, trying to give her something to focus on besides the pain.

“There are a lot of things I'll never get to do now,” Dawn breathed. “College, marriage, kids…Things I hadn't thought about, really, but I was sort of looking forward to.”

“Buffy sorta staked the only date I'd ever had,” she said, blushing slightly. “And he was only my age when he was turned,” she told him. “I want…I mean…” she trailed off, blushing more.

Spike chuckled softly. “Just tell me what you want, Dawn,” he told her. “I promise I won't laugh, no matter what it is.”

Dawn swallowed, then looked him in the face. “Would you kiss me?” she asked, turning red again.

Spike blinked, not having expected that. “Why do you want me to kiss you, Dawn?” he questioned curiously.

“I don't want to die without knowing what it's like to kiss someone that's grown up,” Dawn said quietly. “The guy I dated was sort of…grabby and slobbery,” she said, making a face. “Then he went all `grr' and tried to eat me, and Buffy staked him.”

Spike smiled down at her, flattered in spite of himself. “Okay,” he told her.

The blonde vampire nodded. “ `Course I will,” he told her. “I'd be a fool to argue with a pretty girl wantin' me to kiss her,” he said, smiling.

Dawn blushed again, and Spike chuckled. She was so unbearably cute. It made his chest hurt to think that she wasn't going to grow up. He'd never see the beautiful woman she would've become, the woman that was just starting to peek out from within her.

His hand still tracing the curve of her cheek, Spike leaned over and brushed his lips across Dawn's in a feather-light touch before he slowly deepened the kiss, tangling his tongue with hers and stroking it sensually for a long moment before withdrawing so that she could breathe.

Spike laughed softly and gave her a peck on the lips. “Too bad you're not three years older, an' we're at the end of the world,” he said. “Woulda loved to've seen how you turned out. I can already tell you woulda been bloody gorgeous, Nibblet. Surprised the blokes from school weren't beatin' down the door to get at you already.”

Dawn giggled. “That's sweet, Spike. You don't have to lie, though. I know I'm nothing special.”

Spike gaped at her. “You're out of your head, Dawn. You're beautiful now. Given a few more years, there wouldn't be a man in the world that could say no to you,” he informed her. “If you weren't bleedin' jail-bait, I'd have snatched you up for myself.”

Spike nodded. “Really,” he assured her, then frowned, something occurring to him that he hadn't previously thought of. “I can turn you, y'know,” he told her softly. “An' you wouldn't have to be evil. I can teach you how to control the demon, or I can find a way to get your soul back.”

“You don't have to do that, Spike. It's enough that I'm not alone. You don't have to stick yourself with me forever,” Dawn said.

“You're hardly a burden, Nibblet,” Spike told her. “I love you. You know that, right? I mean, I try not to think about shaggin' you rotten, what with you bein' underage an' all, but you're family,” he said. “You an' Buffy are all I got,” he informed her. “Considerin' what just happened, I'm thinkin' we lost this one. Don't wanna lose you, too.”

Dawn winced at the knowledge. “I know…I'm trying not to think about Buffy being dead again. Maybe for real, this time. But, you don't have to turn me, Spike. You don't owe me or Buffy anything. I love you, too, but you don't have to do this.”

Spike sighed and kissed her forehead. “Dawn, I wouldn't have offered if I didn't want to do it. I don't wanna lose you. Slayer'll have me for breakfast if I do anythin' inappropriate with you, but I don't want you to die. Not when I can stop it, luv.”

Dawn stared at him in silence, as if she were gauging his sincerity. She opened her mouth to speak, but gasped instead, her back arching as a wave of searing pain swept through her body, clutching Spike's hand so hard that the blonde vampire felt and heard the bones in his hand grinding against each other.

Judging by the rapidly expanding pool of blood that Spike was half-lying in next to Dawn, she didn't have much time left. As it was, Spike's vampiric hearing was able to pick up the sound of her heart straining to pump blood to limbs that were no longer attached to her body.

Ice-blue eyes stared down into Dawn's slightly glazed aqua-green ones. “You sure?” he questioned. “There's no goin' back once it's done.”

“I know. I don't care. Do it. Make the pain stop. Please!” Dawn said, choking on the last few words, her face white with pain.

Spike gave a short nod, then lowered his lips to her neck, one hand gently cupping the back of her head as he sank his fangs into her flesh, his eyes closing in bliss as a rush of warm, sweet blood gushed into his mouth. It was a sensation he'd never expected to be able to feel again.

Calling upon all of his self-control, Spike kept his senses attuned to her heartbeat, ready to break away from her ambrosial blood at the first stutter of her heart.

Dawn moaned, her hands clutching at the back of his head as he drank, her breath coming in panting gasps. Spike was willing to bet that Buffy hadn't told her sister just how pleasurable a bite could be if the vampire wanted it so.

Hearing the slight hesitation between heartbeats, Spike withdrew from her neck and bit into his own wrist, holding the wound to Dawn's lips and closing his eyes in pleasure as her hands closed weakly around his arm, holding it steady as she fastened her mouth over the self-inflicted wound and began suckling the vampiric blood that would save her life.

Unlike Angelus, Spike wasn't afraid of making his Childe too powerful. He would let Dawn drink him to dust if she needed it to survive.

Feeling a bit lightheaded, Spike allowed his head to drop to the floor, his arm stretched across his chest to Dawn's mouth as she continued drinking, though her swallows were becoming a bit weaker.

“That's it, Nibblet,” he murmured. “Don't be afraid to go to sleep. You'll wake up when the sun sets, I promise,” he assured her, knowing the lethargy that came with the infusion of vampiric blood when one was on the brink of death.

Dawn's hands slid away from his forearm limply, her breaths labored as she struggled to stay awake. “Spike…” she whimpered, her voice weak, one small hand resting on Spike's arm where it lay across her chest where it had dropped when she let go of it.

Summoning what little energy he had left, Spike rolled back onto his side. “S'okay, Dawn. You can go to sleep. You'll wake up healed an' stronger than you've ever been in your life.”

Dawn's eyelids fluttered and she nodded slightly. “ `Kay,” she said, letting her eyes slide closed, darkness claiming her.

Despite the fact that Spike knew she would wake when night fell, he felt a stab of pain in his chest when he heard her heart stop abruptly, the absence of the sound deafening.

Closing his eyes and sending up a silent prayer to whoever would listen to a demon, Spike forced himself to get to his feet and move the sheet rock off of Dawn's body, arranging her so that her body would heal while she was unconscious.

He could only hope that Buffy would one day understand and forgive him for what he'd done, if she hadn't perished in the battle.

Satisfied that his first and only Childe would awaken whole and uninjured, Spike let the darkness that had been splotching at the edge of his vision claim him, collapsing into a heap next to Dawn's still form.