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The group broke itself up soon after Giles’s orders had been reluctantly agreed to. Giles had told Buffy and Faith to follow him in their car to come to his house with him; apparently he didn’t fully trust that if left to go to their own home, they would actually remain there and rest. As the girls got into the car, Buffy behind the wheel, and followed him back to his place, it was painfully obvious to them both that someone was missing- that DAWN was missing. Neither girl said more than a few words for the duration of the drive; both were concentrating on trying to breathe around the harsh constriction of their throats.
When they arrived at Giles’s place, the man had nearly immediately dove into his collection of books, making lists and notes and what seemed a cross between a plan for action and a freewrite. When Buffy and Faith had gone to him and attempted to help, he had waved them away, insisting they rest mentally as well as physically. This seemed a near impossibility for them, particularly in Faith’s case, as she was wanting to run out the door and track Glory immediately, but Giles had persisted in directing them to sit on his couch and do nothing but drink the water he set before them. Eventually beaten down by his surprising forcefulness, they had done so.
Buffy had burrowed herself into Faith’s side, her head leaned heavily against the brunette’s shoulder, and she listened to the other girl’s furious frustrated ranting, complete with angry gestures. As Faith went on, faster and faster, Buffy felt her own body tense against her. Faith had left the water Giles gave her sitting untouched as Buffy didn’t try to talk back to her. She wasn’t sure she would have been able to. She just let Faith’s words wash over her, let her own morbid thoughts plague her mind.
Eventually Faith had began to slow the speed and frequency of her ranting, then stop altogether, until Buffy realized that she was fiercely fighting against tears. Becoming a little more alert, even as Faith at last began to gulp down large swallows of the water before her, Buffy had tightened her arms around her, adjusting her position so that it was Faith’s head on her shoulder rather than the other way around, and she had just held her, her own lips drawing into a very thin, controlled line. After some time she felt Faith’s body shift, relaxing against her, and heard her breathing grow heavier; glancing at her, she had realized that she was asleep. Buffy had glanced over at Giles, but he was not acknowledging it. He seemed to think that for now that was okay, maybe even preferable.
So, sighing raggedly, Buffy simply ran a hand slowly over Faith’s head, gently enough not to wake her, and sipped on her own glass of water, trying once more to make some sort of sense, some logical use out of her jumbled array of thought. Eventually she found herself slowing down, her thoughts fading, and without quite realizing it, she found herself drifting off along with her girlfriend.
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Buffy awoke with a start to a gentle hand on her shoulder and a quiet voice calling her name. Her eyes flew open, and she looked around with some panic, temporarily disoriented. It took her a few moments to realize that she was at Giles’s house, that he was the person who had awakened her, and the warm weight stirring against her side was Faith.
She had fallen asleep… DAMMIT, how could she have fallen asleep?! She didn’t even have an entire DAY left until Christmas, and Dawn was GONE, Glory had taken her, was doing god knows what with her… how the hell could she have fallen asleep?!
“Oh god,” she gasped, bolting to her feet, her eyes darting about frantically. The same horrified distress was evident on Faith’s face beside her. “I fell asleep, oh god… I didn’t mean to, I don’t know how-“
“Oh shit, what time is it?!” Faith almost yelled, her voice panicky as well. “What’s going on, damn, we have to go find Dawn- dammit, Giles, why didn’t you wake us up before?!”
“Because I wanted you both to get some sleep,” Giles said very calmly, and he gestured at the empty water glasses before them. “You needed to have time to rest in both mind and body, and I knew you wouldn’t be able to on your own, so I gave you some help.”
Faith’s eyes widened considerably at that, and for a moment Buffy was afraid the younger Slayer was going to spring herself upon him much in the same way she had Anya. And Buffy had to say she didn’t blame her…
“You fuckin’ DRUGGED us?!”
“No, Faith, what I did was make sure you would be able to heal,” Giles said levelly, meeting her incredulous, infuriated eyes with a steady gaze of his own. “I think you’ll find that during your time asleep your shoulder, and your hand, Buffy, were able to heal completely. But if you want to waste time being angry rather than listening to what I have to say, I suppose that would be your choice.”
Faith glared at him, but she was listening. Buffy was too, stiffening slightly in anticipation of his words. Seeing that he had their attention, Giles went on.
“We have nine hours until the first moments of Christmas- assuming, of course, that it counts as a day of sacrifice, and that this is the day that Glory has chosen to use Dawn on. I don’t think we can afford to assume otherwise. If we act fast and rationally, there is still time. Now for the past few hours I have been looking up any spells that may be useful for Willow and Tara to learn, and gathering weapons for our possible use. I have read and re-read Willow’s notes on the sacrifice day and the key. I have called Angel and Wesley both for their input and possible research help with this, and they are informed and on the lookout. The problem is that right now Cordelia is missing too- she has apparently somehow been taken into an alternate world from ours. I’m afraid they may not actively join us in this.”
He paused, taking off his glasses to clean as he continued. “It occurred to me that Glory may very well have needed to visit Ben, to merge with him, after the occurrence at the Magic Box, so I also dropped by the hospital. However, as it’s Christmas Eve, he has a day off. I have called Willow and Tara to come here and learn spells- I think it would be best for you girls to look for Ben in his apartment.”
“Why?” Faith asked, frowning. “HE won’t know anything… he won’t even know that Glory’s using him-“
“Exactly,” Giles replied. “And I think it’s time he learned by this point. It will give us an advantage if Ben is with us, for surely Glory will have to jump into him at some point. Now, I have been looking over the spells Willow and Tara found about perhaps causing Glory to have to switch hosts, but I am not entirely sure yet if it is possible to twist them to suit our purposes. I suppose I shall have to see when they arrive. But yes, as I was saying… if Glory has not visited him yet then she will probably do so soon. It would be much better if we could get to him first.
The slayers stared, thinking about this, and Buffy asked sarcastically, “So…what, do we go to his apartment or house or whatever and just go, ‘Hey Ben, you’re possessed by a hell god who kidnapped Dawn and wants to use her to doom the world. Why don’t you come along with us now?’ Is that what you’re saying?”
“Er…yes, I suppose so,” Giles said slowly, blinking a little at Buffy’s blunt summary.
“Okay,” Faith shrugged, seemingly more than ready to get to it. “Let’s do it.”
She started towards the front door, but Buffy grabbed her, stopping her before turning back to Giles.
“Wait..is he in the phonebook? We need an address…”
“Yes, I had Willow hack into the hospital files for it, he was an unlisted number. Here, it’s written down right here for you.”
He handed Buffy a slip of paper. Faith glanced at it briefly before turning again. “Yeah, okay, then we’re outta here…and after this, hitting the demon bars…”
“We’ll call you,” Buffy called quickly over her shoulder, and she followed after the brunette, sliding into the passenger seat. Surely Ben would know…and even if he didn’t believe them, they could find ways to persuade him into coming with them.
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Ben leaned forward from where he was seated on the couch, surveying the items scattered about the coffee table before him and the floor around it with a slight frown. So this is what he got for total procrastination…
He had the wrapping paper, the tape and scissors, and the gifts- well, he was pretty sure he had all the gifts he needed for everybody, anyway. He’d never been very good at making lists… and he never knew what to get or how to wrap the things.
Well, it’s not like anyone will really care how it looks anyway, he told himself, as he had for the past several years around this time. They just rip the wrapping paper right off anyway. No one really notices if it’s neat-looking…
What he should have done was just get gift cards. Or even better, buy the gifts for his family in stores that would wrap them for you. Oh well, too late now…
Ben reached for his gift for his mother, awkwardly cutting a strip of paper that he estimated would cover the item. He was going over to her house tomorrow for Christmas, along with his sister and her family. It would be nice to spend the day with them, although Ben knew that it would of course lead to the inevitable questions about finding himself a girl. It wasn’t that Ben didn’t want a wife or girlfriend. He was just so busy, and it just never seemed to happen, was all…
Ben began to clumsily fold the wrapping paper around the gift, getting far too much tape, and trying to tear it in half awkwardly, when he suddenly got the feeling that he was no longer alone in the room. Looking up quickly, he saw that his assumption was correct- for standing in the doorway of his living room, just outside of the adjoining kitchen area, was a small figure that he recognized to be Dawn Summers, one of the young girls he had helped at the hospital a month or so ago.
Seeing her standing there, Ben blinked quickly, startled and somewhat alarmed. There was the question of how she had gotten here, of course, past his locked door…he had locked it, hadn’t he? And how did she know his address anyway- why would she come here to see him on Christmas Eve? Sure, the girl had clearly had a crush, but if she’d really gone to all this trouble…
Then there was the knowledge of this particular girl’s history. She had slit her wrists when she came to the hospital in a serious, if botched, attempt to kill herself. And the last time he saw her and her sisters, they had told them that their mother had died. For her to be here in his apartment, she must really be in trouble…something horrible must have happened, and she must have nowhere else to go.
All this flicked across his thoughts in a matter of moments, and Ben stood, setting down what he had been holding and addressing her. It was then that he noticed what his initial startled glance had failed to see… Dawn was not alone in the doorway after all. There was an older, larger girl there, a girl who was neither of her sisters… and the young woman was holding Dawn by the shoulders, smiling in a manner that suddenly struck Ben as quite ominous. As he looked back down at Dawn again, he realized slowly that her eyes were wide, pleading… and terrified.
“Dawn,” Ben blurted out as he looked from the teen to the person holding her- RESTRAINING her, he amended with growing alarm. “What are you doing here…um, and I’m afraid I don’t know your friend here…”
“What, you don’t’ recognize your own face when you see it?” Glory smirked. “Well, I suppose I can forgive that… after all, I’m technically behind your face.”
Ben just stared, uncomprehending, feeling cold dread tighten in his chest. He started towards them, intending to extract Dawn from her, but Glory just laughed.
“Like you really could, vessel… Dreg, Jinx, let’s move on already, I’m bored!”
Suddenly, two brown robed, strange-faced creatures appeared behind her, grinning in supplication… and even as Ben fought back, it was obvious to him from the first few moments that he would lose.
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It didn’t take the Slayers very long to arrive at Ben’s apartment; in fact, with Faith’s scary-yet-skilled speedy driving, it seemed Buffy had barely buckled her seatbelt before she was getting out of the car again in front of rows of apartment complexes. By the time Buffy had emerged from the car, Faith had already looked around for the area of where Ben’s apartment number should be and started heading towards it rapidly without speaking to Buffy or waiting for her to catch up. Buffy hurried to get alongside of her, finally falling in stride. She didn’t speak either; like Faith, the thoughts running through her head and her grim focus on the task they were carrying out was more than enough to keep her busy.
They climbed the outer steps up to Ben’s apartment and found his room number a minute or two later. Buffy saw Faith tensing herself, drawing back in a way that made her think she was going to break the door down immediately, and she quickly put a hand on her arm to stop her.
“Faith- Faith, wait. We don’t want to scare him before we even explain…just ring the doorbell.”
Faith looked at her as if she was asking a silly and unreasonable thing of her, but nevertheless she jabbed the doorbell hard, holding it down longer than necessary. As they waited for Ben to open the door, Buffy’s mind was still racing, her stomach cramping with unease. There was really no way they would be able to get Ben to believe them, most likely. And if he didn’t believe them, there was no way they’d be able to get him to come with them on Christmas Eve of all nights…
Essentially, what they would probably have to is kidnap him. Buffy really didn’t want to…Ben was a nice guy, he’d been very sweet to Dawn. But now Dawn was gone, and to get her back, to protect her, Buffy would do anything.
They waited, Faith noticeably restless and impatient, but Ben was not coming to the door. They couldn’t even hear anyone moving around inside, heard no voice call out for them to hold on a minute…
“He has to be home,” Buffy said aloud, almost incredulous, more because she wished it were true then because she really thought it was. “He has to be.”
Faith jammed the doorbell again, holding it down longer than before this time. Again, there was no response. As they waited, Buffy’s anxiety increased sharply. Where was he- how were they supposed to find him now?
Then a darker thought struck her sharply, and Buffy stiffened. What if Glory had already come by… what if that’s why he wasn’t answering, because Glory had him? What if she had already taken him…what if-
Apparently Faith was having similar thoughts, because she abruptly kicked the door in, not waiting for Buffy to speak again. Buffy didn’t have time to worry about whether any of the neighbors had seen or heard her and were busy calling the police, because Faith was striding ahead, and she wasn’t about to get left behind.
From the first glance it was obvious that her fears were true… Ben was definitely not home, nor would he be for…who knows how long.
The apartment had clearly been disturbed. The coffee table and a nearby lamp were overturned, as if during a struggle, and wrapping paper, tape, and gifts were scattered about the floor, some gifts broken or trod upon. There was no blood on the floor, but this meant nothing…for there had clearly been violence.
Buffy stared, barely hearing herself when she breathed but the first thought coming to her mind. Her shoulders sagged slightly, and she felt limp even as beside her Faith stood rigidly.
“She took him… Glory, she must have took him…”
“Shit,” Faith spat, and there was no dazed quality to her tone, nothing stunned or disbelieving about it. “Fuck…that fuckin’ bitch…”
As Buffy’s eyes drifted about the room, taking in the mess, she spied something glistening back by the doorway near the kitchen. Suspicion taking over, she quickly walked over to it, then went to pick it up. Once it was in her hand, she just stared at it, a lump forming slowly in her throat even as her lips formed a very thin line.
Faith had picked up the coffee table and slammed it down again in a angry frustration, succeeding in splitting it in half. Now she glanced over at Buffy, her face quickly stilling as she noticed Buffy’s hunched posture, the way she seemed entranced by what she held in her palm.
“B, what is it- what are you looking at?”
She moved over to stand next to her, peering into Buffy’s hands… and then her eyes widened as she saw it too.
“Is that…”
“Yes,” Buffy said quietly, not lifting her eyes from what she was still holding. “Dawn’s earring… I gave it to her for her birthday…”
Faith took a shuddering breath, her eyes still glued to it, her face very still. When she spoke, the utter relief in her voice was quite audible.
“She was here…she’s…she’s still alive…”
“Yeah…” Buffy breathed, seeming still slightly in awe of this fact. Then, shaking her head abruptly and looking up into Faith’s eyes, she added more strongly, “Of course she is. She’s okay… and we’ll make sure she stays that way.”
Faith nodded, her expression hardening as her face grew resolute once more, matching the renewed determination and strength in Buffy’s. Both girls were standing straighter, more confidently, just from this small sign of Dawn’s continued existence.
“Call Giles and tell him what’s up,” she told Buffy levelly. “I think we got some demon bars to go raise hell in…”
“Hopefully not literally, though,” Buffy said wryly, but as she dug in her pocket for her cell phone, following Faith’s long strides to exit the apartment, she felt better. Maybe they didn’t know how to do this, but with all of them working, surely they’d figure it out now. They always had before…
