My key slides into the lock of my place and I turn it, opening the door. With the door unlocked, I go inside. As soon as I'm in, I see Buffy standing in the middle of the apartment with the scythe in hand, both hands actually.

She doesn't have her arm in a sling. I guess she must've healed up faster than we thought she would.

Buffy looks at me out of the corner of her eye but doesn't say anything as she moves slowly, doing her Tai Chi. She moves the scythe in her hands, switching grip positions whenever she needs to so she can keep her movements flowing.

She always looks so graceful when she does this. Of course, being her sister, I know better than to think that she's this coordinated all the time. But she still manages to pull it off sometimes, particularly when she's fighting. I kinda wanted to learn this a couple years back, but quickly realized I really didn't have the patience for it. Tai Chi is all about slowing down and focusing, which really isn't easy for me. Sure, give me a book or something to read and I can sit for hours going through it, but without something to focus on other than myself, I just can't really stand still long enough to learn it.

Then again, I'm not on the front line of a war against demons and other evil things in the world. I don't have to be in perfect fighting form so I can attack evil things at a moment's notice. Only in extreme circumstances do I ever get asked to do any fighting, and even then if Buffy can avoid sending me into battle, she will. Either that, or in situations like when she asked me to help train her students at the dojo, but that only happened once so far in my entire life, and I don't think it'll happen again. Probably for the same reasons I'm never asked to fight any battles that might happen. So I guess it doesn't matter that I don't have the patience for Tai Chi.

My sister comes back to her normal starting position and holds it for a second before looking up at me and smiling.

"Hey..."

Closing the door behind me now that her Tai Chi is over, I make my way into our apartment.

"Hey... sorry I interrupted."

"It's fine, I was almost done anyway."

While I walk into the kitchen to get myself a snack, she goes into her room to put the scythe away in the weapons chest she keeps it in.

"How was your date with Faith? Did you have fun?"

I know she's gonna hate me for saying this. She always does, but I just can't help myself.

"Oh yeah, we danced, we talked, we made out like crazy."

From the other room, I can hear my sister groan in mock disgust that might not have much mock in it.

"You know, that joke gets even less funny every time I hear it. Not to mention the gross out factor of hearing my sister talk like that. Someone should really wash your mouth out with soap."

Picking up a bag of chips, I walk back out into the main hall of our apartment and start eating. Buffy is there already, working out her left arm.

"I seem to remember you trying that already when we were younger and it didn't work then either."

"Well you know the old saying, if at first you don't succeed..."

All I can do is laugh at her before eating a couple chips.

"Yeah, good luck with that."

She frowns at me disapprovingly.

"Don't talk with your mouthful."

I hold out the open end of the bag of chips to her.

"Want some?"

She waves me off.

"No thanks, I'm good."

My sister paces a little while she continues to work out her arm.

"Seems like your arm's doing better..."

"Yeah, I woke up today and it felt pretty much back to normal. But rather than push my luck I decided to see how the day went and test it out tonight if it still felt better."

Eating a bigger handful of chips, I respond.

"Looks like it's mission accomplished."

Again she gives me a slightly disapproving look.

"Mhmm, I may even be good enough to go out on patrol tomorrow."

Patrol? So soon?

"You're going out on patrol? Already?"

"Well someone has to get out there and find this demon, and I nominated me so now I'm stuck with the job."

Right, the demon...

"You're not gonna go out there alone right? You'll take a couple of the other slayers along with you?"

"Of course, there's no way I'm letting this Faraquad demon thing getting its hands on me or anyone else so that it could do anymore damage. It's already been out there for two weeks, maybe longer, without anyone to keep it in check. We've been lucky that it hasn't hurt anyone else yet."

She makes her way towards me as we talk.

"That's good. I wouldn't want anyone to get hurt. I... I don't know if I could stand anyone else I care about getting hurt."

My eyes shift to Buffy's until recently hurt arm. Buffy sees what I'm looking at and quickly pulls me into a hug.

"Hey, it wasn't your fault."

I kinda have to scoff at that.

"Just because we had a fight that day doesn't mean I was angry enough to go out and get myself hurt."

We pull back from each other and she's smiling at me.

"I was planning on going out patrolling anyway. And yeah I was a little upset about what happened between us but by the time that demon came along, I'd already worked that out on a couple vamps we met earlier in the night."

There's a moment where we just stare at each other.

"Yeah?"

"Yes Dawn, it wasn't your fault. I probably should've said something earlier but with everything going on I got a little sidetracked. I'm sorry."

"Okay..."

Buffy and I stand in silence together for a second.

"Good..."

She moves away from me and starts working out her arm.

I probably already know the answer to this, but I have to ask.

"Are you... are you going to ask Faith to go with you?"

She turns to me with a sympathetic look.

"I was planning on it. The girls and I are going to need her if we wanna take this thing on without ending up dead. We'd really like to avoid doing that."

Of course...

"Well, uh... would you... I wanna make sure that..."

"I'll make sure she comes home safe Dawn, don't worry."

That has me taking a sigh of relief before eating some more chips.

"Thanks..."

Buffy walks up to me with a smile on her face.

"No problem. But we probably won't be doing any fighting right away. Giles said that these kinds of demons are usually working for other demons, we'll have to find out who it's working for and what it wants first before we kill it."

Then without warning, she snatches the bag of chips out of my hand and heads to the kitchen.

Oh my god...

"Hey, that's mine."

She chuckles.

"Yeah but you're going to bed soon and I decided I'm hungry."

How rude...

"Give it back."

My sister looks back at me and sticks her tongue out.

"Make me."

The second she says that I take off after her, chasing her through the kitchen and dining room as fast as I can go.

"I'll make you."

We start to laugh while we chase each other.

"You gotta catch me first."

Obviously, she's faster than I am because of her slayer speed, but she slows down when she gets close to the couch and rolls up the bag of chips. I run right into her and tackle her onto the couch. Using my body weight to keep her down, which I know won't hold her, I start reaching for the chips. She tries to reach out as far as she can to keep it away from me but I crawl up and grab the bag of chips from her. Immediately, I get off of my sister and back away enough so she can't grab me. Then I start to dance around in victory.

"Oh yeah, I won. Oh yeah, you suck."

Buffy looks at me from the couch and smiles.

"Right, and in no way did I let you win."

Sticking my own tongue out, I frown at her.

"Damn right..."

My sister sighs heavily.

"Go to bed already Dawn."

You know, I am pretty tired. Sleep is probably a good idea.

"All right, I'm going."

* * *

We hold each other tightly in the backroom of the training area at my sister's dojo. Our bodies pressed together lovingly, the fear of what's to come running through mine.

She could get hurt. Of course she could always get hurt every time she goes out on patrol, but for some reason this time feels different. I'm worried more than usual, and I know I'm being nuts and I don't have any reason to be, but I can't help it.

"Be careful baby."

"I will DK, I promise."

When I pull back, I look into her eyes and cup her cheek gently.

"No, really Faith, be careful. I want you to come back to me. If something happened to you..."

"Hey..."

Faith leans forward and kisses me gently.

"Nothing is gonna to happen to me. I'm gonna be fine."

"But what if you're not? I mean, that thing did a number on Buffy the last time you fought it."

"Yeah, but you know as well as I do that your sister can be an idiot sometimes. She took that thing on toe to toe. We know better this time. There's more of us this time around and we're not even going to try and fight it right away. We'll just try and track it back to its lair and see what it's up to. If it spots us, we're gonna hold it off long enough for us to escape, nothing more. You don't have to worry."

I smile.

She makes it sound so simple and easy. It doesn't make me feel better though.

"How can I not when the woman I love is putting herself in danger for the sake of the world?"

My girlfriend chuckles slightly.

"We don't even know that the world's in danger yet. Let's just hope for the best for now all right?"

Taking a deep breath, I try and calm down.

"Okay..."

That puts a little bit of a smile on her face.

"Okay..."

She leans forward and we start to kiss softly. It goes on for a few minutes before a fake cough has us breaking apart and looking to the door. Buffy is standing there silently for a second.

"Sorry to interrupt, but I think we're ready to head out now."

Faith lets out a heavy sigh and we kiss one last time before she gets up and I slowly get up with her.

"All right, let's go."

Our fingers link together and we hold hands, squeezing each other tightly as we walk towards the door and Buffy. My sister walks just in front of us when we enter the main room of the dojo where the other twenty three slayers are waiting. Buffy does her authoritative pose thing.

I'm so glad she waited a week after her arm healed to go out on this mission.

"Okay, now remember girls. This isn't a search and destroy mission. We're after information and nothing else. The objective is to track the Faraquad demon down and find out everything we can about it. Where it came from, what it's after, and even who it's working for if we can. This thing has strength, speed, and has a lot of focus. So don't lose any of yours by thinking about taking it on without my express orders. Got it?"

Most of the slayers either nod respectfully or say 'Yes ma'am' to my sister's question.

"All right, we're going to fan out in groups of five while we patrol the city tonight. Faith and I will each head our own team while Candy, Carmen, and Melissa will head up the other three. You all know which team you belong to, so let's start heading out."

The dojo becomes a bustling room of activity when my sister gives her order and each slayer picks up their weapons on their way out the door. Faith turns to me and gently touches my cheek with her hand.

"I'll come back to you Dawn, you don't have to worry."

Knowing she's about to leave for the mission, I frown.

"You better."

One last time, she leans in and kisses me deeply.

"I love you."

"I love you too."

Then she turns around, twirling her short sword in her hand, and heads for the door, which leaves me and Buffy standing alone together with the other slayers in the dojo. We look at each other and she smiles sympathetically at me.

"We'll be fine Dawn, don't you worry."

Stepping into her personal space, I wrap my arms around her in a hug. She gently puts her arms around me and hugs me back.

"I know."

I don't actually know that they're all going to be all right, but I know that my sister wants me to be strong, so I'm trying... as much as I can anyway. They have to come home all right.

Buffy steps back from the hug and I let her go. She lifts the scythe with one hand, readjusting her grip on it and then uses her other hand, rolled into a fist, to hit me in the jaw with a feather-light touch. It makes me smile.

"I'll see ya after the mission. Don't stay up too late, all right?"

Instead of answering, I nod and smile at her. After looking at each other for a second, she turns around and walks out the door the way the rest of the slayers did. Just as I get that feeling of dread I always get whenever Buffy and Faith go out patrolling, Tess walks up next to me. She taps me on the shoulder, making me look at her and her smiling face.

"They're gonna be all right you know. They're slayers. If anyone can handle this demon thing, it's them."

Except sometimes, even slayers don't come back from missions.