We Shall Remember Part 1

We Shall Remember Part 1
Author: DSwanson
E-mail: [email protected]

Rating: PG

Summary/Spoilers:Uses The Gift season 5 finale

Spoilers: BtVS Season 5 (The Gift)

Disclaimer:All belongs to Joss, well cept the part that belongs to Shakespeare but he's dead and can't sue. So please don't sue me. This is for fun not profit.

Feedback: Is a mighty fine thing.

Note: All feedback should go to the author @ [email protected]

******

This day is called the feast of Crispian:
He that outlives this day, and comes safe home,
Will stand a tip-toe when the day is named,
And rouse him at the name of Crispian.
He that shall live this day, and see old age,
Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbours,
And say 'To-morrow is Saint Crispian:'
Then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars.
And say 'These wounds I had on Crispin's day.'
Old men forget: yet all shall be forgot,
But he'll remember with advantages
What feats he did that day: then shall our names.
Familiar in his mouth as household words
Harry the king, Bedford and Exeter,
Warwick and Talbot, Salisbury and Gloucester,
Be in their flowing cups freshly remember'd.
This story shall the good man teach his son;
And Crispin Crispian shall ne'er go by,
From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be remember'd;
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition:
And gentlemen in England now a-bed
Shall think themselves accursed they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day.
Henry V by William Shakespeare.
...We few, we happy few
...We buggered few.
Joss Whedon.

***

Dawn limps down the last of the stairs looking at the carnage for the first time. Tara and Willow holding on to each other-- lifelines for the other. Willow's face streaming with tears and her breath coming in gasping sobs. Giles stoic in his grief, stunned. Xander holding Anya in his arms. Away from the group, Spike collapsed kneeling in the dirt his head buried in his hands. His face bloodied and his grief ripping him to his so called soulless core. Buffy rests on the ruins of the fight. Broken but curiously at peace.

Dawn eases unseen around the scoobies to Spike. She hesitantly reaches out to him brushing her hand against his shoulder. Spike looks up at her. "I failed. I failed her. If I... I could have stopped Doc... if..."

"Shhh." Dawn whispers. "You knew this day was coming. You knew that one day..."

"No." Spike denies even as he flashes back to the night when he'd told Buffy about the death of the other slayers. The Slayers he had taken out... the look in the face of the slayer on the train just before he'd snapped her neck.. the same look he'd seen in Buffy's eyes when she told them not all of them were coming back from this battle with Glory. When she'd made him promise to take care of Dawn... til the end of time. He scents the warm sweet blood and sees Dawn wince. "You're hurt."

"We all are." Dawn grimaces.

"Then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars.

And say 'These wounds I had on Crispin's day.' Henry the Vth. Never saw the point of it really... as if any of us will ever forget what happened today. We all had front row seat."

"Oh Lil Bit." Spike rises to his feet and clutches Dawn to him pulling her close in an embrace that almost hurts...

But Dawn wraps her arms around him. Her fist beats the middle of his back. "It should have been me. It should have been me. I'm The Key."

Spike pulls back and starts shaking Dawn. "No, you won't think that.... You're flesh of her flesh. blood of her blood... and she thought you the best of her."

"But everyone needs Buffy... nobody needs.." Dawn turns away.

"I need you." Spike admits harshly. It was nothing less than the truth.

Giles' lifeless voice interrupts the coversation. "Spike, take Dawn home. I will do what needs to be done here. Xander, Anya needs medical attention. Tara take Willow away."

"NO!" Willow cries out. "I can't leave her here... we can't."

"I will do what needs to be done. It's my duty." Giles insists. "It is my duty." He repeats. A duty he'd never really thought he'd have to fulfill. Buffy had beaten apoclypses before. "Go."

"Someone should tell Angel." Xander admits reluctantly.

"That arrogant poof." Spike snarls. "Where was he when he could have been of some use?"

"We'll go, Mr Giles." Tara says softly. "Willow...."

Willow brushes away her tears. "We'll tell him. He deserves to know." Willow goes over to Buffy's lifeless body. She might look like she's sleeping if not for the cooling of her body. Willow brushes back Buffy's hair and presses a kiss to her temple. Standing back she reaches up with one hand and tears at the sleeve of her jacket ripping it so it hangs torn. And then turns away. Tara puts an arm around her shoulder and pulls Willow to her. Willow rests her head on Tara's shoulder and allows her to be her strength.

Xander follows Willow and Tara from the scene carrying Anya. "Drop us off at the hospital and then take my truck."

"Spike, it's almost sunrise." Dawn murmurs weakly..

"Go." Giles insists. "I'll meet you at the house-- later after I am done."

Spike turns away, his arm supporting Dawn with increasing strength. Doc had done his work well. Shallow cuts... shallow cuts that were still bleeding. Not even off the site he sweeps Dawn up in his arms and carries her to the Desoto. One handed he opens the passenger door and slides her in. Dawns head collapses back against the seat. "Just a minute, Lil bit, and then you'll be home."

***

"Damn modest females." It wasn't nothing he hadn't seen in the last hundred years. Dawn limps down to the kitchen of the Summer's home out of her ritual finery and changed into loose shorts and a t-shirt that she was holding away from her body so it wouldn't get bloody. It had taken the last of her strength to change and get down to the kitchen. "Where does Buffy keep her supplies?" Spike demands.

"Under the sink." Dawn fades onto one of the kitchen table chairs.

Spike investigates and grabs the well appointed first aide kit. He brings it over to the table and flips it open gathering the bandages and the ointment. "Have you fixed up in a jiff."

"Buffy has a folder of stuff from when Mom died. Maybe we should get a discount rate." Dawn says with a funereal humor. She winces at the ointment Spike is applying. He blows on the cut and then bandages it up. It wasn't normally his department. Nothing cured a vamp like time and bandages were a waste of it... at least for him. "We have to make arrangements."

"Giles will do that." Spike tries to relieve her of the burden.

"No! I have to. I have to." Dawn insists. "And then I guess I should call my Dad. Buffy said it was him or foster care... actually she didn't even say him. Just foster care."

Spike squats down beside her. "It's not going to happen. If you want your Dad then your Dad it will be."

"He didn't even come to Mom's funeral. He never called. He never checked on us." Dawn says bitterly. "The Social Workers will probably be here before Buffy is even bur..." Dawn bites her lip.

"Well then we'll just take a page out of Wills book and put up a little wall that they'll bounce off like little rubber balls." Spike says with false cheer. Giles comes in the front door calling out as he does. "We're back here." Spike answers. He regains his feet and walks into the living room. "Well?"

"The Fire Chief took one look at the scene and said industrial accident." Giles says wryly. One thing about living on the hellmouth... the people in charge were used to coming up with creative answers to demonic questions. "Those unfortunate souls controlled by Glory were returned to whole at her death. With no knowledge of what had happened or how they got there. There is some work to be done. Some creatures that made it through the portal."

Spike rolls his eyes. "Oh well."

"How is she?"

"Functioning and wondering what will happen to her now. Those Summer girls are tough."

"What about Buffy?" Dawn asks from the doorway. She has her hands out to balance herself.

"We'll be able to take care of her in a couple of days... to make arrangements." Giles stumbles over the answer still not able to say his charge is dead.

"Sit down before you fall down." Spike demands of Dawn. He goes over and carries her over to the couch out of the daylight rising through the window. Dawn grabs his hand and pulls him down next to her.

Giles takes the seat next to them. He takes off his glasses and polishes them to have something to do. "Well... well..."

"She said it was her job... that this was what she was meant to do. Death was her gift." Dawn pets Spike maintaining contact with him comforting him. Giles' head sinks deeper and deeper into his hands as he listens to Buffy's final words, her final directions. He brushes the back of his hand against his eyes. "... that living was our job." Dawn's voice fades to nothing and her eyes close.

"I have to go." Giles rises to his feet. He was going to lose it if he was here much longer. He needed to break something as it was.

"Shh." Spike hisses. He adjusts Dawn so she is laying on the couch and covers her with an afghan. He indicates with a motion of his head the kitchen. Giles goes with him. Spike pulls out his cigarettes. Joyce would rise from the dead and stake him herself if he smoked in the house. Spike eases out the backdoor and keeps to the shadows before firing up. "I'm here for the day." He tells Giles as offers him a cigarette. Giles takes it and lights up as well. He quit smoking decades ago.. back when he'd submitted to becoming a watcher and given up his rebellion. But today was a day of many old habits. "Be back here at dusk." Spike demands. "I have things I have to do as well. Preparations I have to make." Giles nods and grinding the cigarette out with his heel walks off into the sunshine. Spike eases back hugging the house to not getting burned and dashes back into the house grateful that Buffy had dropped the protection spell. Going to the phone he starts making his calls.

***

Two days later in a tree shaded spot Buffy Anne Summer is laid to rest. The service is at dusk. Anya is the only one that cries. The rest are all cried out. Spike stands separate from the foursome: Giles, Dawn, Anya and Xander, in the deeper shade next to the trees. As Dawn had suspected her father hadn't returned her calls. They had in return been ducking the phone calls of the social workers that the cops investigating the "accident" had sicced on them. Willow had called from LA. She was at the Hyperion still waiting for Angel to return from whatever task had taken him out of town. The service ends as the sun falls off the edge of the world. Spike walks out of the shadows to join the others. As the foursome drops a flower in the open grave and then walks away Spike waits until he is the only one left. "I did... do love you. Quite the joke, the slayer and a vampire. One that you'd already heard before. But I'll do as you asked. I'll protect the Lil Bit... til the end of time. Things are heating up around here for her. Since I can't solve the problem the old fashioned way just ripping their heads off it means we have to go on a little trip until things ease. Might head to Dallas and see your father. Last word we had was that he was there or at least he has an office there. I'll be back; we'll be back."

He that shall live this day, and see old age,
Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbours,
And say 'To-morrow is Saint Crispian:'

Crumbling the blood red rose to petals in the grave, Spike backs away. Finally turning around and walking to the only car left in the parking lot of the cemetery. His brethren rise from their resting places around him and seek the warmth that only draining the living could provide. Already news of the slayer's death had spread. Along with the rejoicing of the forces of evil is a curiosity... With the death of the old came the new. But it would be awhile before the new slayer made her way to the hellmouth if she didn't find another to occupy her time in the meantime.

Everyone meets up at the Summer residence. In the driveway is a battered recreational vehicle with welded sheets of tin over the holes the Knights of Byzantium had punched in it. A tow truck had pulled it into the Summer's drive the same day as Buffy had been killed. Spike had been working on making it light tight again since then much to the neighbors bitching. The Winnebago had been in sorry shape before it had been used for a sword cushion and then dragged along it's side but nothing a sledge hammer and a welding torch couldn't fix. Dawn had even gotten into the act with a can of spray paint and the words ouch, wham and zowie.

"Anyone else thinking this is a really bad idea?" Xander asks the group. "What happens if his chip goes kapplut. It'll be Dawn for dinner."

"I can't stay here right now, Xander. Not with everything that happened... Mom, Buffy..." Dawn shakes her head. "Spike is going to take me to my Dad."

"In that tin can/ rolling crypt it could take you weeks to get out of California." Xander says practically.

"Giles gave me something to read." Dawn holds up the books. There is a starter collection of old texts but the one she holds up for Xander is Spells and the Occult for Dummies "And he is also sending along his laptop since he never uses it. I'll be able to email you guys. Anywhere AOL has access."

Spike comes out of the house carrying the heavy trunk from the living room with all of Buffy's weapons in it. He grunts as he tosses it into the Winnebago.

"Here. I made this for you." Anya hands Dawn a giftwrapped package.

Dawn rips open the package inside is her own Mr Pointy. "Thanks." Dawn smiles and shakes her head ruefully. She tucks it into her backpack. "I'll carry it with me always." She hands Zander the keys to the house. "Garbage day is on Monday. Don't kill Mom's flowers."

"Hey I worked as a landscaper." Xander protests.

Giles steps up and gives Dawn a hug. "If things don't work out with your dad...."

"We'll be back." Spike lights up a cigarette. "Hopefully by then the social workers will have moved on to the next poor soul. You ready to roll? We're burning moonlight."

Dawn gives Xander a hug and then Anya a more awkward one. "Tell Willow I'm sorry we left before she got back but that I'll email her."

Xander extends a hand to Spike. Who looks at it for a long moment before taking it. "Protect her."

"With my life." Spike agrees.

For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition:

Dawn climbs into the Winnebago only pausing long enough to look back at her life in Sunnydale. Spike climbs in after her and shuts the door firmly. With a groan, cough and then finally a rumble the Winnebago comes to life and rolls out of the drive.

"We're on our way, Lil Bit."

"When do I get to drive?"

To be continued....