fic: The Vampire in the Basement 6/16?
Title: The Vampire in the Basement 6/16?
Author: Beneficia
Fandom: Sherlock BBC, Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Characters: Sherlock Holmes, Dawn Summers
Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. No copyright infringement is intended.
Rating/Warnings: PG-13: Language, subtext
Word Count: 1,800
Spoilers: none
Summary: Dawn Summers’ life is already weird enough. Maybe she should have done a background check on her neighbor before moving into Baker Street. Sherlock Holmes sees through everything and everyone in seconds. Except the new tenant of 221C Baker Street.
Previous chapters here.
.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.
Things got ugly after that.
Sherlock had more than just cops for friends. Apparently he had all of freaking England at his disposal.
On the first day, as soon as the bastard woke up, he pressed charges of his own against Dawn.
"ASSAULT?!" she cried incredulously, “He was the one invading my home!”
“Actually he’s claiming the assault took place the day before the alleged invasion occurred and that he has bruises to prove it.”
“…Oh… That.”
On the second day, Dawn’s lawyer filed for a restraining order against Sherlock.
Sherlock’s lawyer filed a lawsuit and restraining order against Dawn. His lawyer actually beat Dawn’s to the punch by filing about three minutes sooner.
That was the last Dawn had to do with her pending criminal and civil cases.
By the third day, Dawn was holed up inside Council HQ, with strict instructions on what outside contact was allowed. The government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain had somehow got involved in Dawn’s tiff with her neighbor: various background searches and security checks sent Council alarms ringing, and then people who were in-the-know on one side got in touch with people who-had-connections on the other side…
Dawn had been successfully chided on her poor handling of the situation by Giles on the first day, before the shitstorm had been unleashed. Now she didn’t want to go out at all, if only it meant avoiding passing by people in the halls.
A third of the legal department, quite a lot of administrative employees, and the entirety of the U.K. relations department were all scrambling to deal with The Slayer’s little sister’s mess.
Dawn could almost die from the shame and embarrassment.
She had pretty much given up on ever getting her flat back. The renovations would have to be finished, if only to cover up evidence of the wards, but she would never live there now. There was no way to recuperate her monetary losses; she wasn’t going to try to weasel it out of Mrs. Hudson, and after all the trouble this had caused the Council, there was no way they’d reimburse her in exchange for the lease on the flat. She’d be lucky if they didn’t charge her for all the overtime this was causing.
She might even have to leave the country.
Any liking she had previously had for Sherlock Holmes had been burned away by Dawn’s absolute loathing of the man. If he could have just left her alone…
On the fourth day, Giles had stopped telling her what was going on and Dawn couldn’t bring herself to call him and pester him for an update. That evening, she got up, drank some blood, and then planted herself in front of a chick flick still wearing her pj’s and a box of chocolates.
She couldn’t really taste the chocolates properly, didn’t really enjoy eating them, but it was the thought that counted.
She was halfway through the epic of Mr. Darcy and Keira Knightley (“You lie!” she had shouted, or some variation thereof, at the TV at least seven times so far) when someone knocked on her door. Dawn paused her film and got up to answer it. She had only taken a step towards the door when she was hit by the familiarity of the scent of the person on the other side of it.
It was Buffy.
Dawn hadn’t seen Buffy in nearly two years.
Dawn picked up her teacup and shot it at Buffy’s head. Buffy jerked out of its path and the cup impacted the wall hard enough to dent even as it exploded into powder and shards. “I DON’T WANT TO BE HUMAN!”
Dawn was breathing hard, and Buffy was looking at her like she’d never seen her.
“Why can’t you understand that?!” Dawn cried.
“Because it’s not you, Dawn.”
“How would you know that? How would you know what I want!? I am literally standing here and screaming it into your face and you still can’t hear me!”
“Because you didn’t want this before! You did not-”
“Of course not! You’re being deliberately stupid! Of course I didn’t want to die and have a demon take over my body, but that’s not what happened! That’s not what I am, and you can’t keep treating me like it is!”
Buffy turned away from Dawn, pursing her lips, grinding her teeth. She looked like she might cry.
“I’m still me, Buffy. And I’ll always be me. I’m not Angel and I’m not Spike. I don’t have a demon inside waiting to burst out. I’m not gonna lose my soul and I don’t have a hundred years of mass murder to atone for. It’s my life and-”
“You’re not alive Dawn! You drink blood, you can’t go out in the sun-”
“I don’t care! It’s my choice!”
“It’s not a choice! You were forced into this and I can fix it!”
Dawn ground her teeth together and growled. “I. Don’t. WANT. You to FIX IT!”
“That’s only because you’re not yourself! Once you’re human again-”
Dawn threw the teapot this time.
“Why won’t you listen to me!” Dawn braced her hands on the table and leaned over it. “I’M NOT ANGEL! I’m not Spike and I’M. NOT. YOU!”
“Dawnie…”
“If you force this on me I will never forgive you Buffy. I swear I will never forgive you if make me human against my will.” Dawn’s voice was hoarse and quiet.
Buffy was silent for a long moment.
“You’ll never have children, Dawn. You’ll never be able to fall in love and grow old with someone. You’ll never-” Buffy choked up. “So many things Dawn. There are so many things that you will never have. You will be stuck like this forever.”
“…I keep telling you. I’m not you. The picket fence and the perfect husband and the 2.5 kids playing in the sunny backyard is your impossible dream life. Not mine.”
“…I wouldn’t force you Dawn. I mean Willow hasn’t found a way to make it work yet, but-”
“Then there’s nothing for us to talk about.” Dawn walked over to the door, turned the handle, and held it open for Buffy.
Buffy stared at her, heartbroken, with tears forming in her eyes. “I just want… I just…”
“I know, Buffy. But this is what I want, and you can’t keep treating me like a little child. I’m old enough to make my own decisions now, and I need you to accept that.” Dawn had tears in her own eyes.
Buffy walked past Dawn and was almost out the door when Dawn stopped her with a hand on her arm.
“You were wrong.”
Buffy looked up.
“I did have a choice.” Dawn took a deep breath. “Dracula gave me a choice. I did choose this.”
Buffy’s eyes were so sad, “You were dying Dawnie. You weren’t- And his thrall-”
“It wasn’t thrall. His thrall never worked on me.”
“How would you know that?”
“…What do you think he was doing there in first place Buffy?!”
“…He was… You said you…You went looking for him?!” Buffy exploded with latent worry and terror, “You CONTACTED him?! Do you have any idea how dangerous that was!? What were you thinking?!”
“He’s the one who found me, Buffy! Over a year ago, he… He wanted to get to know me. He’s the reason… How do you think I found out about my real parentage in the first place? What do you think gave me the idea to look into it? He smelled me when we were in Hungary and he knew. He knew I was his and yours and after we left, he waited a while and then he followed me.”
Buffy’s face was appalled.
“He never hurt me Buffy. He never hurt me and he never bit me. He just… we just talked. That’s how I know the thrall doesn’t work on me. I mean… I think it might have something to do with the blood, you know? Maybe some genetic thing that makes me - made me - immune to…”
Dawn’s voice trailed off as Buffy turned away and paced back into the room. “I- I… I can’t even…” Buffy stammered.
Dawn waited.
“One day,” Buffy bit out. “God if the monks had made you on any other day…”
“If the monks had made me on another day then I wouldn’t be me. I wouldn’t exist.”
“Dawn that’s not what I-”
“No, you need to understand this. If the monks had put me together on some other day, when Dracula wasn’t in your bedroom, then I would be some other girl with some other gene donor. That girl would have had Riley for a genetic dad maybe, and she would never have been sought out by Dracula and he would never have saved her life as she lay dying.”
“He didn’t save your life,” Buffy bit out.
“Okay so it was a concerted effort. His turning, Willow’s souling, your feeding. But just because my heart doesn’t beat doesn’t mean I’m not alive. I think and I feel and I exist. And if I didn’t…
You can’t have it both ways Buffy. You either accept me as I am, as what I am, or you wish I had never existed. That you had some other sister who Dracula would never have thought to turn and who would have really died in that battle. Not undead, dead-dead.”
Buffy looked down at the carpet and then back up at Dawn. Her wet eyes were hard. “You’re telling me… You’re saying that you let Dracula turn you into a monster.”
That hurt.
“No. I’m saying I let him to turn me into a vampire. I - Look, it wasn’t like I planned it out okay? If he had offered any other time, when I wasn’t bleeding out on the ground… But I knew you and Willow were looking for me. And I trusted you to not let me become a monster.”
Buffy looked at her for a long moment. Then she marched out the door, never looking back once.
That had been the last time they spoke.
Dawn slowly opened the door.
Buffy looked the same. A little more tired maybe, but the same Buffy, and Dawn wanted nothing more than for her sister to fold her in a hug and tell her everything would be alright.
Buffy’s face was expressionless, except for perhaps a little weariness and a little wariness. She handed Dawn a clothing bag and shoe box. “Get dressed. We’ve got dinner reservations in an hour.”
.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.
AN: So we finally get the back story. *glances at 'penny for your thoughts' button* What do you guys think?
Oh, and for anyone not familiar with Buffy the Vampire Slayer canon who's confused about Dawn's origins, go here.
Author: Beneficia
Fandom: Sherlock BBC, Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Characters: Sherlock Holmes, Dawn Summers
Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. No copyright infringement is intended.
Rating/Warnings: PG-13: Language, subtext
Word Count: 1,800
Spoilers: none
Summary: Dawn Summers’ life is already weird enough. Maybe she should have done a background check on her neighbor before moving into Baker Street. Sherlock Holmes sees through everything and everyone in seconds. Except the new tenant of 221C Baker Street.
Previous chapters here.
.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.
Things got ugly after that.
Sherlock had more than just cops for friends. Apparently he had all of freaking England at his disposal.
On the first day, as soon as the bastard woke up, he pressed charges of his own against Dawn.
"ASSAULT?!" she cried incredulously, “He was the one invading my home!”
“Actually he’s claiming the assault took place the day before the alleged invasion occurred and that he has bruises to prove it.”
“…Oh… That.”
On the second day, Dawn’s lawyer filed for a restraining order against Sherlock.
Sherlock’s lawyer filed a lawsuit and restraining order against Dawn. His lawyer actually beat Dawn’s to the punch by filing about three minutes sooner.
That was the last Dawn had to do with her pending criminal and civil cases.
By the third day, Dawn was holed up inside Council HQ, with strict instructions on what outside contact was allowed. The government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain had somehow got involved in Dawn’s tiff with her neighbor: various background searches and security checks sent Council alarms ringing, and then people who were in-the-know on one side got in touch with people who-had-connections on the other side…
Dawn had been successfully chided on her poor handling of the situation by Giles on the first day, before the shitstorm had been unleashed. Now she didn’t want to go out at all, if only it meant avoiding passing by people in the halls.
A third of the legal department, quite a lot of administrative employees, and the entirety of the U.K. relations department were all scrambling to deal with The Slayer’s little sister’s mess.
Dawn could almost die from the shame and embarrassment.
She had pretty much given up on ever getting her flat back. The renovations would have to be finished, if only to cover up evidence of the wards, but she would never live there now. There was no way to recuperate her monetary losses; she wasn’t going to try to weasel it out of Mrs. Hudson, and after all the trouble this had caused the Council, there was no way they’d reimburse her in exchange for the lease on the flat. She’d be lucky if they didn’t charge her for all the overtime this was causing.
She might even have to leave the country.
Any liking she had previously had for Sherlock Holmes had been burned away by Dawn’s absolute loathing of the man. If he could have just left her alone…
On the fourth day, Giles had stopped telling her what was going on and Dawn couldn’t bring herself to call him and pester him for an update. That evening, she got up, drank some blood, and then planted herself in front of a chick flick still wearing her pj’s and a box of chocolates.
She couldn’t really taste the chocolates properly, didn’t really enjoy eating them, but it was the thought that counted.
She was halfway through the epic of Mr. Darcy and Keira Knightley (“You lie!” she had shouted, or some variation thereof, at the TV at least seven times so far) when someone knocked on her door. Dawn paused her film and got up to answer it. She had only taken a step towards the door when she was hit by the familiarity of the scent of the person on the other side of it.
It was Buffy.
Dawn hadn’t seen Buffy in nearly two years.
Dawn picked up her teacup and shot it at Buffy’s head. Buffy jerked out of its path and the cup impacted the wall hard enough to dent even as it exploded into powder and shards. “I DON’T WANT TO BE HUMAN!”
Dawn was breathing hard, and Buffy was looking at her like she’d never seen her.
“Why can’t you understand that?!” Dawn cried.
“Because it’s not you, Dawn.”
“How would you know that? How would you know what I want!? I am literally standing here and screaming it into your face and you still can’t hear me!”
“Because you didn’t want this before! You did not-”
“Of course not! You’re being deliberately stupid! Of course I didn’t want to die and have a demon take over my body, but that’s not what happened! That’s not what I am, and you can’t keep treating me like it is!”
Buffy turned away from Dawn, pursing her lips, grinding her teeth. She looked like she might cry.
“I’m still me, Buffy. And I’ll always be me. I’m not Angel and I’m not Spike. I don’t have a demon inside waiting to burst out. I’m not gonna lose my soul and I don’t have a hundred years of mass murder to atone for. It’s my life and-”
“You’re not alive Dawn! You drink blood, you can’t go out in the sun-”
“I don’t care! It’s my choice!”
“It’s not a choice! You were forced into this and I can fix it!”
Dawn ground her teeth together and growled. “I. Don’t. WANT. You to FIX IT!”
“That’s only because you’re not yourself! Once you’re human again-”
Dawn threw the teapot this time.
“Why won’t you listen to me!” Dawn braced her hands on the table and leaned over it. “I’M NOT ANGEL! I’m not Spike and I’M. NOT. YOU!”
“Dawnie…”
“If you force this on me I will never forgive you Buffy. I swear I will never forgive you if make me human against my will.” Dawn’s voice was hoarse and quiet.
Buffy was silent for a long moment.
“You’ll never have children, Dawn. You’ll never be able to fall in love and grow old with someone. You’ll never-” Buffy choked up. “So many things Dawn. There are so many things that you will never have. You will be stuck like this forever.”
“…I keep telling you. I’m not you. The picket fence and the perfect husband and the 2.5 kids playing in the sunny backyard is your impossible dream life. Not mine.”
“…I wouldn’t force you Dawn. I mean Willow hasn’t found a way to make it work yet, but-”
“Then there’s nothing for us to talk about.” Dawn walked over to the door, turned the handle, and held it open for Buffy.
Buffy stared at her, heartbroken, with tears forming in her eyes. “I just want… I just…”
“I know, Buffy. But this is what I want, and you can’t keep treating me like a little child. I’m old enough to make my own decisions now, and I need you to accept that.” Dawn had tears in her own eyes.
Buffy walked past Dawn and was almost out the door when Dawn stopped her with a hand on her arm.
“You were wrong.”
Buffy looked up.
“I did have a choice.” Dawn took a deep breath. “Dracula gave me a choice. I did choose this.”
Buffy’s eyes were so sad, “You were dying Dawnie. You weren’t- And his thrall-”
“It wasn’t thrall. His thrall never worked on me.”
“How would you know that?”
“…What do you think he was doing there in first place Buffy?!”
“…He was… You said you…You went looking for him?!” Buffy exploded with latent worry and terror, “You CONTACTED him?! Do you have any idea how dangerous that was!? What were you thinking?!”
“He’s the one who found me, Buffy! Over a year ago, he… He wanted to get to know me. He’s the reason… How do you think I found out about my real parentage in the first place? What do you think gave me the idea to look into it? He smelled me when we were in Hungary and he knew. He knew I was his and yours and after we left, he waited a while and then he followed me.”
Buffy’s face was appalled.
“He never hurt me Buffy. He never hurt me and he never bit me. He just… we just talked. That’s how I know the thrall doesn’t work on me. I mean… I think it might have something to do with the blood, you know? Maybe some genetic thing that makes me - made me - immune to…”
Dawn’s voice trailed off as Buffy turned away and paced back into the room. “I- I… I can’t even…” Buffy stammered.
Dawn waited.
“One day,” Buffy bit out. “God if the monks had made you on any other day…”
“If the monks had made me on another day then I wouldn’t be me. I wouldn’t exist.”
“Dawn that’s not what I-”
“No, you need to understand this. If the monks had put me together on some other day, when Dracula wasn’t in your bedroom, then I would be some other girl with some other gene donor. That girl would have had Riley for a genetic dad maybe, and she would never have been sought out by Dracula and he would never have saved her life as she lay dying.”
“He didn’t save your life,” Buffy bit out.
“Okay so it was a concerted effort. His turning, Willow’s souling, your feeding. But just because my heart doesn’t beat doesn’t mean I’m not alive. I think and I feel and I exist. And if I didn’t…
You can’t have it both ways Buffy. You either accept me as I am, as what I am, or you wish I had never existed. That you had some other sister who Dracula would never have thought to turn and who would have really died in that battle. Not undead, dead-dead.”
Buffy looked down at the carpet and then back up at Dawn. Her wet eyes were hard. “You’re telling me… You’re saying that you let Dracula turn you into a monster.”
That hurt.
“No. I’m saying I let him to turn me into a vampire. I - Look, it wasn’t like I planned it out okay? If he had offered any other time, when I wasn’t bleeding out on the ground… But I knew you and Willow were looking for me. And I trusted you to not let me become a monster.”
Buffy looked at her for a long moment. Then she marched out the door, never looking back once.
That had been the last time they spoke.
Dawn slowly opened the door.
Buffy looked the same. A little more tired maybe, but the same Buffy, and Dawn wanted nothing more than for her sister to fold her in a hug and tell her everything would be alright.
Buffy’s face was expressionless, except for perhaps a little weariness and a little wariness. She handed Dawn a clothing bag and shoe box. “Get dressed. We’ve got dinner reservations in an hour.”
.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.
AN: So we finally get the back story. *glances at 'penny for your thoughts' button* What do you guys think?
Oh, and for anyone not familiar with Buffy the Vampire Slayer canon who's confused about Dawn's origins, go here.