Disclaimer: I don't own anything and I'm not doing this for profit.

I'm not entirely interested in playing out every single story line step by step with-in the gang (willow and tara for instance), but if you'd like to see more of certain characters or of a certain story line just let me know. Reviews are very much appreciated.

Chapter 3

Dawn mulled over Buffy’s reaction as she walked to the shop. Buffy hadn’t really shown any sort of emotion and Dawn really hoped that Sam would be coming to see them soon. Surely the younger Winchester would be able to bring something back to life within Buffy. And if not, the fact that Buffy is alive will at least make him happy, Dawn thought. Sam and Dean had both been there when Buffy had given her life to save the world.

Dean had bawled and Sam’s expression had been stone, like they had switched personalities. No one had known what the brother’s had been going through. Dean must have been running short on time then, and the fact that they came to help Buffy was ridiculous! They had their own work to do and they should’ve been doing it.

Dawn kicked a trash can. If they had just worked out their own problem, Dean might be here when we freaken need him! Dawn was angry with them now. It was easier than being sad.

She wanted to hit something. She wanted to make someone feel pain. She wanted to track down that demon Dean had made the deal with! She wanted to— Just then she opened the Magic Box door with a little too much force and sent it slamming into the wall. The crash, along with the look Giles gave her, immediately sobered her up.

“Sorry.” She mumbled weakly as Anya came rushing from behind the counter.

“You could have broken the door!” Anya exclaimed in the shrill voice of hers.

“I’m sorry.” Dawn repeated trying to avoid Giles’s eyes.

“It’s alright Dawn. Things have been…” Giles paused as he tried to find the word to describe exactly what things had been, “difficult. I expect things have been especially hard on you. What with having to constantly adjust to new situations and authorities.” He was referring to the fact that’s Dawn’s legal guardians had changed 3 times in the past year. “If you ever need to, ah, talk I can certainly lend you an ear.” He told her as Anya pouted and went back to dusting shelves. She didn’t like when people hurt her store.

“Uh thanks Mr. Giles. I’m okay right now. It was just…. building up on the way over. We just told Buffy.”

“Oh. How did she…”

“I don’t know. I mean obviously it wasn’t happy fun time, but she didn’t really seem like anything. Almost emotionless. When I left she had been up in her room calling Sam.”

“Oh? Well that should be good. Maybe having Sam around will help.” Sam had always been sensible and Giles was sure that he would be able to talk Buffy out of anything stupid regarding getting Dean out of hell.

“Yea, well I guess we’ll find out. Sam doesn’t even know Buffy wasn’t in hell. And what if he doesn’t come? What if he’s out on a job and can’t?” Dawn was a little frantic now. She missed Sam, what if that other girl had him all wrapped up so that he was just having too much fun to pull himself away. They hadn’t seemed especially cozy when Dawn had been to visit him, but the Ruby girl had kept looking at Sam like he was a piece of meat.

Dawn stopped herself. This was Sam, and no matter what he went through he would always come running when a Summers girl needed him. No way would he let something like a horny girlfriend distract him, and the fact that he had been their through the fight with Glory proved that no job was big enough to keep him away.

“Dawn, we’ll deal with each thing as it comes. If Sam doesn’t come then we’ll deal with it then.” Giles said breaking her from her own thoughts. If Sam didn’t show, then Giles wasn’t sure if he could leave. Yes, Buffy needed to learn to stand on her own two feet but he couldn’t risk her doing something stupid to get Dean back. He might need to give Sam a call himself. Even if he didn’t stay indefinitely, Giles had to go to England to converse with the council and the coven to find out what he could about Dean’s situation. He would need someone rational here to look over things. Sam might be in pain, but he was still Sam and therefore the best candidate for the job. Giles resolved to call him later that day.

“Do you mind if I do my homework here?” Dawn asked cutting off further talk of the entire situation. She just couldn’t take anymore today.

“Yes of course. Just let me know if you need any help.” Then Giles went back to doing inventory, while Dawn went to call Willow, after that she sat down at the round table and got out her math book.

The phone rang and Anya ran over to answer it.

“This is Anya. May I sell you something today?” Giles gave her and exasperated look. They’d talked about proper phone answering techniques. “Giles? Yes he’s right here.” Anya said in a disappointed voice before shoving the phone at Giles. “Why do people who aren’t customers call the shop phone?” She grumbled.

“Hello, this is Rupert Giles…. Oh hello, I was actually going to call you later on…. No actually right now isn’t the best time... Excellent! I’ll call you back in an hour or two.” He hung up the phone a bit relieved. Sam was already on his way there, and once Anya left for the day and Dawn got done with homework he’d call Sam back. Hopefully he’d be up for the job of looking after the scoobies while Giles was gone.

He trusted Tara, but she was too timid. They needed an organized well voiced leader. Someone to make sure they didn’t go looking for more trouble than they already had. Xander had summoned a demon for goodness sake! And he had no idea what they were thinking when they pulled that stunt with Buffy. Or maybe he did. After all he’d lost her too.

Dawn got home just before dark. Any later and Buffy would have sent out a search party. Dawn had decided that stressing Buffy out was the last thing she wanted to do. They’d all been through a lot. She’d just keep out of the way and not put them through anymore.

When Dawn walked through the door Buffy raised an eyebrow at her. “Cutting it a little close don’t you think?” She was already in her patrolling clothes.

“Nothing but vamps tonight?” Dawn asked as she noted her sister was only carrying a stake.

“Nothing that we know of, but if other things do show I’ll just get improvisee” Meaning she’d probably just beat it to death with its own arm. Buffy wasn’t in the mood for anything other than simple slays tonight. Sam was going to be there in the morning and if she really had to think about the proper way to kill something she just wasn’t sure she could. All she wanted was ‘stake and poof’ tonight.

She got her wish that night. The vampires had all just kind of crossed paths with her. She didn’t even have to look for them. She went through a few motions and ended up with 4 piles of dust.

After putting her coat away she went to the stairs. Looking up to the hallway that led to her room she shuddered. The thought of going up there just wasn’t pleasant. She closed her eyes and saw Dean.

He was sitting on those steps just waiting for her to come home from patrol. “Hey babe.” he winked. God his winks were perfect! She’d just smiled up at him. It was the summer before college and she was completely unburdened. The “Angel drama” was over and she hadn’t been looking for anything new. No school, no boyfriend, and somehow no mother or Dawn in the house. Thinking about it she realized Dawn actually hadn’t existed then, but the memory was still there. She dismissed that thought to continue her memory.

He came down the steps to greet her with a kiss that left her stunned. “Mmmmm” she sighed, “Hey why is your hair wet?” she asked pulling back after she’d put her hand on the back of his neck.

“Oh, shower. Sammy and I just got done with a messy job not far from here.” He informed her adding that beautiful smile of his, “He’s taking his right now.”

“Ha, I bet he wishes he would’ve gone first. You take forever.” Buffy said while she pulled him a little closer to her.

“Oh dang. I forgot about that. We usually stay at motels and they don’t really run out of hot water. He’ll get over it.” He said as he bent down for another kiss.

“I missed you.” She breathed between kisses.

“Honey you have no idea.” He practically growled. A lot of the time he enjoyed being on the road with Sam. He was meant for it, this demon hunting life. But then he’d come to Sunnydale and find this waiting for him, this amazing girl, and he’d think ‘Man, destiny sucks’. Even in the days before they kissed he was always elated to see her. You didn’t get to keep a lot of close friends in this business.

Buffy broke the kiss when she heard someone clear his throat. They both turned to see Sam with a towel wrapped around his waist. She ran up to hug him and almost knocked him over. He hugged her back tight and had a genuine smile on his face. Dean grunted behind them and called up “Hey you want to put a shirt on Sammy? Oh and maybe stop trying to steal my girl?”

“Yea whatever Dean.” Sam rolled his eyes and pulled away to go get his clothes from the duffle in the bathroom. “Thanks for leaving me that 30 seconds of hot water by the way!” Sam yelled from the bathroom.

“Anything for you little brother!” Dean yelled back smug grin set on his arrogant face. It was Buffy’s turn to roll her eyes.

“Play nice boys.” She turned and went back down the steps to Dean. “How’d you guys get in anyway?”

“Your mom gave us a key a while back. Told dad we were welcome anytime we wanted to stop by. She even told dad that we were a good influence on you.” Buffy looked astonished. The Winchesters had been the reason she’d needed to burn down the gym at her school. Dean thought trapping all the vamps inside was a good idea but then things had gotten out of hand and in a pinch she’d just trapped them and burned it. Dean had loved that part.

Joyce hadn’t even known the Winchesters existed then. She met John at Sunnydale High the day she'd enrolled Buffy. John was enrolling his own children and she thought it was nice that Buffy wouldn’t be the only new comer. She’d even invited the Winchesters over for dinner to try and help Buffy make new friends. Joyce was delighted when the 3 kids got along so well. Of course she didn’t know that they’d known each other for about 2 years already.

“Alrighty then. Let’s get you guys some sleeping bags and make some room on the living room floor.” Buffy tried to hide her smile as she walked to closet.

“Um we... Ya know- I was um,” Dean stammered trying to get the words out before sighing into resignation, “Yea fine let’s get the freaken sleeping bags.” Buffy laughed.

“I’m teasing you. Of course you’ll be sleeping in my room,” she gave him a coy look. “Since when do you go all stammery anyway? I thought for sure you’d be all ‘Baby, I need some love tonight’” Buffy gave her best deep manly voice.

“I’m not freaken Louie Armstrong!”

“Yea that was the worst Dean impression ever,” Sam chimed in as he came around the corner. “It’s more like ‘Buffy, baby, I need to be able to hold you tonight, and ya know if other things happen then they happen’” Sam winked and sucked in his cheeks giving his best posing model expression.

“HAHAHAHA! Oh perfect!” Buffy was in hysterics and soon Sam was too.

“Yea you guys are a couple of flipping comedians. Anyway I thought you were serious and I didn’t want to get hit tonight.” Dean sulked as he yanked a sleeping bag out of the closet and went to find a spot on the living room floor. Sam and Buffy looked at each other knowingly. Dean wanted to be persuaded into Buffy’s bed now.

“You can sleep in mom’s room if you want Sam. She’s out of town till Monday. You could also sleep in Dawn’s but there’s no telling what she’ll do if she finds you sleeping in her bed in the morning."

“Dually noted. I’ll stick with your mom’s room.” He threw a look to Dean in the living room. “I would say let’s stay up and chat, but I actually am tired and it looks like you’re going to have to work to get him back.”

“Oh, not even.” Buffy laughed. Getting Dean to her room would never be hard. She sighed theatrically and then said loudly “I guess I’ll just have to get someone else to model my new underwear sets for. I’m not sure which I like best.” They heard Dean stir but he didn’t get up. Sam decided to help out.

“Well I guess if you really need help, I can always take a look.” Dean was up faster than a vampire trying to escape the sun. He glared at Sam, opened his mouth to speak, then just grabbed Buffy’s hand and started pulling her up the stairs.

Buffy opened her eyes. No, she couldn’t even sleep in that room tonight.

Sam pulled up to the curb and shut the engine off. He sat and stared at the house for a moment. It was 4:00 a.m. and he just wasn’t sure what to do. Call? No that would just wake up the house, and right now he didn’t want the big reunion, just a quiet minute with his friend. His friend that had been dead until recently, he slammed a fist into the steering wheel and was immediately sorry. Hurting the Impala was the last thing he wanted to do. Sure it wasn’t his baby but it had been Dean’s and Dean would want it unharmed when he got back.

After wrestling with the options for a few minutes he decided to walk in. Sure he risked startling Buffy and getting his ass kicked, but he could take a punch or two before she realized it was him.

Once at the door he picked out his key to the Summer’s house and unlocked the door. He stepped inside, shut it behind him, looked around and saw a figure curled up on the couch to his left. He snuck quietly closer to realize Buffy’s small body asleep there. Just then she whimpered and Sam hurried to kneel by her side. “Buffy?” he whispered as he gently shook her shoulder.

“Sam.” She murmured, but he wasn’t quite sure she was awake. He didn’t want her to be having a bad dream, but judging by the dark circles under her eyes she hadn’t been getting much sleep lately. So he decided just to let her sleep. If she woke up screaming he’d be there.

It was good to see her. He thought about going to get himself a blanket but he didn’t want to let her out of his sight. No telling when she’d be gone again. He sat down on the other end of the couch. Maybe he’d get an hour or 2 of sleep before the draining meeting with scoobies that was scheduled to happen in the morning.

Buffy shifted and stretched her leg out pushing Sam to the edge of the couch. Her other leg stretched across Sam’s lap. He wasn’t sure if he should move her other leg across his lap or if he should just move. Before he could decide Buffy brought her leg up and then down hard (not as hard as she could though) on his thigh.

“Agh!” He groaned.

“That’s for being secret guy.” Buffy said her eyes still closed. Sam’s eyes watered and at first he thought it was because of the blow she’d landed, but when he looked at Buffy he saw tears slipping out of her eyes that were now tightly closed against them. The weight of the past year came crashing down on him. He tried to smile at her and be strong but then she sat up and pulled him into a hug. “How bout we not pretend that this doesn’t mean the world to either of us?” She suggested and Sam nodded.

They allowed themselves the tears that had been building up. Buffy just couldn’t hold them back form Sam like she did the others. Knowing Dean being in hell had to be harder on him than being on earth was for Buffy. She thought about telling him the truth but how could she? Sam was suffering enough. Everyone was suffering enough. She didn’t need to cause more.

“I’m sorry, Sam.” Buffy just didn’t know what else to say.

“Buffy you’re going through the same thing I am. Maybe worse. I’m the one who should be sorry! I should’ve been checking on Willow and the gang. I knew she’d try something and I knew something would go wrong but I wanted you back so much and I was busy trying to make deals for Dea—“

“Sam, what do you mean something would go wrong?” Buffy cut him off, “Nothing went wrong I’m back and I’m whole.” Aside from the piece of her that was with Dean.

“Giles told me.” Sam’s voice was low and filled with the pain of trying to maintain control. Was she really about to try and hide it from him? Buffy called this his tsunami voice. Everything was being pulled up into one giant mass and it would let loose a gigantic tidal wave of all the anger and pain he’d built up. She had to do something before the tidal wave hit.

“Sam,” she went for the direct approach, “if you’re going to yell please do so into a pillow or something, because otherwise you’ll wake up Dawn and she’s going to want your attention and I don’t feel like sharing right now.” He didn’t smile like she'd hoped but he did work himself down to a calmer state. It was a minute before he could speak again.

“We’re going to get Dean back.” He said. Buffy looked at his face to find resolve. It was a little scary in the younger Winchester. He was the calm one. The one who didn’t do brash things. That look suggested that he was going to do whatever it took.

“We will Sammy.” At that Sam out then, and relaxed himself.

“Why were you on the couch anyway?” he asked her. Buffy was a little embarrassed.

“Um the bed has been bringing back too many memories lately and I’ve been dreaming about Dean…”

“Oh, come on!” He laughed and threw a couch pillow at her.

“You should get some sleep.” Buffy said suddenly. “Giles wants us at the shop early tomorrow, or today I guess, for a meeting.”

“Ugh I forgot. Maybe I’ll just stay up till then and sleep after.”

“Well maybe we could just skip it…” Buffy responded with hope in her voice.

“Ha yea like I’m going to skip a Giles-meeting.” Buffy sighed. Why was Sam always so reliable? Looking at her face, Sam’s heart broke. For a split second she showed all the weight and sorrow of the past 7 years. It only showed for a moment before she recomposed it to the blank slate of numbness she’d gotten good at. If he hadn’t been Sam he would’ve missed it.

“Wanna go to my room? The bed’s big enough, and I might be able to handle it better if someone’s in there with me.” For them sharing a bed would be nicely platonic. Sam cringed.

“Um well maybe before you said that thing about the bed bringing back memories, but now that is all I’ll be able to think about. I’ll just take a seeping bag.” Buffy laughed, punched him lightly, then got up to get a sleeping bag and pillow. Sam followed.

“Yea that’s probably best anyway. I’m not sure what Dawn would do if she saw—Ya know getting a sleeping bag is a one person job.” She commented when she realized Sam was right behind her. Sam looked down at the ground.

“I’m just not comfortable with letting you out of my sight right now.” He mumbled. Buffy put her arms around him and laid her head on his chest.

“I’m not going anywhere.” Then softly, “I miss Dean”

“When we get him back I’m going to tell him you wanted me to sleep in your bed with you.” Sam jumped away to avoid the smack Buffy aimed at his arm. Both of them laughed as they thought of Dean’s face when he heard that. After that they didn’t say much as they arranged themselves for sleep.

Buffy took the couch knowing that Sam would be offended if she even tried to offer it to him. “Sam?”

“Yeah?”

“Please don’t try to make anymore deals for Dean. It wouldn’t exactly be good to have him back and have you be in hell. Plus he’d kill me if I let that happen.”

“No he wouldn’t.” Sam said in a very quiet voice. “Buff did he ever tell you?”

“No. Honestly Sam.” Buffy sounded exasperated, “I was a girl. I was one of many girls in Dean Winchester’s life.”

“Whatever Buffy. You know it was more than that with you.”

“Yea, but what’s the point in thinking about it. He isn’t here right now, and he never said it so I'm just not going to dwell on it.”

“Okay, let’s just get some sleep then.”

Up next: What if Sam was involved in Tabula Rosa?

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