That same night, in Tara's room, Willow and Tara's kitten was playing with a small ball of yarn.
"Tell me a story." Willow said.
"Okay." Tara said. "Once upon a time, there was, um ... a kitty. She was very little, and she was all alone, and nobody wanted her."
"This is a very upsetting story." Willow said.
"Oh, oh, but it gets better."
The kitten tried to crawl under Tara's bed.
" 'Coz one day the kitty was running around in the street and a man came, and swooped her up..."
Tara swooped up the kitten.
"And took her to the pound."
Tara was sitting on the end of her bed and lifted the kitten into her lap. Willow was in the bed, under the covers.
"And at the pound there were lots of other kitties, and there were puppies, and some ferrets..." Tara continued the story.
"Were there dolphins?" Willow asked smiling.
"Yes. Many dolphins at the pound." Tara said handing the kitten to Willow.
"Or was there a camel?" Willow asked.
Tara thought for a moment, "There was the front of a camel. A half camel." Tara smiled at Willow.
"Did the kitty get chosen by some nice people?" Willow asked cuddling their kitten.
"Well, now you ruined the ending."
"Mmm..." Willow let go of the kitten and it ran off, "I'm sleepy."
"Do you mind if I keep the light on? I was gonna look up some spells." Tara asked
"It's fine." Willow pouted. "I don't need to be snuggled."
Willow smiled at Tara.
Tara smiled back. "Vixen!"
Tara took some books that were on the bed and piled them up on the floor.
"You've been spell gal night and day lately." Willow said.
"Well, I just wanna keep up with you, and I'm ... well, I just like to be useful. You know, to the gang?"
Willow looked concerned.
"I just... never... feel useful."
"You are. You're essential."
Tara smiled. She went over and got under the covers with Willow, turning off the light she kissed Willow.
"Do you think Buffy found out anything tonight?" Tara asked.
"At the factory? I don't know. If there was something, I figured she'd call us."
Tara lied down, putting her head on Willow's shoulder, and they snuggled up together.
Giles, Buffy and Michael sat in Buffy's living room. They were talking quietly. Buffy had told them both about what the monk had told her about Dawn.
"Uh, I don't know what to say." Giles said.
"Tell me about it." Buffy said and looked toward the stairs.
"That's some major magic." Michael commented.
"She has no idea?" Giles asked.
"No. She thinks she's my kid sister." Buffy told them.
"Are you going to tell her?" Giles asked.
"How can I?" Buffy sighed and got up. "She'd freak, and that's the last thing we need."
Buffy walked to the doorway and looked up the stairs. She sighed again.
"We have to keep her safe." Buffy said.
She turned and walked back into the living room.
"You can count on me," Michael said. "Kaz too, we'll help protect her."
"This... woman, this, uh, whatever she was... she knows you now..." Giles said addressing another major issue.
Buffy sat down again.
"Should we be thinking about... sending Dawn away?"
"Away where?" Buffy asked Giles.
"I don't know, uh... your father's?" Giles suggested.
Buffy scoffed, "Yeah, he's, um... in Spain, with his secretary. Living the cliché."
Giles and Michael looked sympathetic.
"I called him when Mom got sick, he hasn't even..." Buffy trailed off.
"I'm sorry." Giles said.
"When he bailed on us... I remember, Dawn cried for a week. Except she didn't. She wasn't there, but... I can still feel what it was like." Buffy said.
Giles put his hand over his mouth and frowned.
"They sent her to me, Giles. I think... I have to take care of her. I want to."
"Do we tell the others?" Giles asked.
"No one. They-they'd act weird around her, and it's, it's safer for everyone if they don't know."
"Yes." Giles stood and began to pace. "We have to find out who this woman is, and what she needs Dawn for."
Buffy pondered this.
"I mean, if she comes after you..."
"She'll come." Buffy said and looked toward the stairs again. "She'll come for us."
Back at the factory a pile of rubble suddenly exploded upward as Glory threw it off of her. She rose in the middle of the destroyed building, still wearing her red dress. She looked around angrily.
"Okay. Now I'm pissed off!"
The following day the gang helped Buffy pack all her stuff up in her dorm, she was moving out.
Buffy was stacking some boxes in the hallway. Xander and Michael were carrying a mini-fridge out of her dorm room. Michael wore leather pants and a black mesh top. Xander squashed his hand in the doorway.
"Ow! Thumb! Necessary opposable thumb!" Xander said.
"Sorry. Cry-baby." Michael said.
"You know what, you guys, just leave it here." Buffy told them.
"Got it." Michael said.
He and Xander put down the fridge. Dawn emerged from another door, carrying a stack of boxes that obscured her vision.
"I don't need help." Dawn said.
"Just be careful." Buffy told her.
Buffy turned and entered through the door Dawn just exited. Boxes surrounded Willow, Anya, and Giles.
"But we just helped her move the stuff in a few days ago..." Anya complained, she turned and saw Buffy, "...and it was fun!"
"People help each other out, Anya. It's one of our strange customs." Giles said reading a book.
"Giles, I noticed you're doing the smallest amount of helping that can actually be called helping." Buffy said to him.
"Well, I saw myself in more of a... patriarchal sort of role. You know, lots of pointing and scowling."
Giles smiled. He looked to his left, pointed and scowled.
"You two, stop that!" Giles said.
Xander and Michael were grappling, bent over at the waist. Xander had Michael in a headlock.
"He started it." Michael said.
"He called me a bad name." Xander said.
Tara looked at them and grinned.
"I think it was bad. It might've been Latin."
"Stop it, or you're going to break something." Giles said.
"Or I'm going to break something." Buffy said threateningly.
