"Wanker." Spike stood there for a moment, chest heaving, breathing hard; but before the fight ever drained out of him, he tried to still his breaths, struggling, as he was wrested with the pain of concern. He tried to straighten, shouting up at the top of his lungs.

  "Dawn?!" Spike called out, voice harsh and raw. He needed to know she was alright. Needed to, he had to. Spike needed to know the little Bit was unharmed. His body stayed coiled and taught, poised for battle, for blood, his demon at the forefront; not slipping until he heard the shaky voice that traveled down the stairs.

  "I'm here." Dawn's shaky voice fell forth and Spike felt his whole body uncoil and almost involuntarily, gave a relieved sigh. The demon features flickered across his face - just for a second - before it finally withdrew leaving his human face on the forefront.

  "Good. Stay put!" Spike said, calling up past the sound of the rushing water and he straightened, suddenly softer, concern replacing fury. He hollered up to her to stay put, reaching up to the pipe that was gushing water, using one hand to crush the pipe between his fingers and pinched it shut. The flow of water changing to a trickle rather than a flood, an idle gesture, as his bruised body turned and his arms dropped to the sides, Spike stalking through the knee-high water.

  He began to climb the stairs, looked a wreck, still breathing hard. Water was dripping off his hair, his skin and his clothes, his black t-shirt open where he'd been stabbed with a wooden table leg in the shoulder, the back diced from lacerations of broken dishware.

  Spike raised his blue eyes up as he anticipated seeing Dawn standing there, his jaw tight, the muscle ticking at the corners. Dawn, he'd worried he'd frightened her, that she'd be afraid of him - the monster - after everything he'd just done. Spike approaches Dawn slowly, careful not to startle her, and when she didn't run he crouched at eye level.

  "Alright. Let’s check you proper, yeah?" He asked, hands hovering near her, not sure if she'd bolt like a scared rabbit from him, the vampire who had fought a lesser monster. She looked terrified as she stood, hugging herself, tears spilling, her heart beating like the flutter of a small bird under her skin. He swallowed hard, had he terrified the one person who could stand him?

  "You hurt?" He asked her, awkward but sincere, not daring to get any closer than kneeling in front of her when she looked so scared of him. Dawn, she shook her head, and since he hadn't been willing to check her over, she threw her arms around his shoulders and lent into Spike!

  "No, you- you saved me!" Dawn cried and Spike was shocked a moment as she hugged him despite his being soaked, rocked back on his knee before he righted himself, steady as Dawn fell against his shoulder and cried.

  "Again! Thank you! Thank you thank you, you keep rescuing me!" She sobbed. Spike, for a moment, was at an utter loss at what to do, but then he took a deep breath, and wrapped his arms around her, careful not to hurt her.

  "You're going to get soaked." He warned her, but made no move to push her back, when the little Bit was sobbing against his shoulder, shivering and shaking terrified out her wits. She wasn't scared of him though. Spike frowned, he'd just- the vampire looked over her shoulder as she cried, looked at all the destruction of the house briefly. He'd just torn a monster apart, smashed through the house to do it he realised, Spike had been the bigger monster. And he'd won. And the Nibblet had seen the whole thing and wasn't afraid of Spike at all.

  "Hey… easy, Bit. It’s alright now." He told her as she sobbed, one arm sturdy around her, keeping her grounded, the other patting her head, as if he could protect her from everything if he just kept her close.

  "You did good. Proper good." Spike said, his deep voice low, trying to calm down the shaking of Dawn.

  "I thought I was going to die." Dawn cried, voice breaking on the words.

  "Hey now, none of that. You're not dying, Nibblet." He said and the growl wasn't quite absent in his voice then. He put his hands on her shoulders, pulling her back, slow but firm, trying to look her in the eyes.

  "Nothing's going to get you, do you understand? Not while I'm here." He said, but the girl's eyes were closed and she cried, held there before him, arms on her shoulders. He reached out and took her chin in one hand, lifting her face so that her blue eyes met his own.

  "Nothing gets past me." He swore, eyes steady, fierce, determination making his declaration sound utterly sure. Then Dawn broke free of his hold and was leaning into him again, hugging Spike and crying even harder. Spike hugged her back without thinking this time, both hands on her back, making sure she knew he was going to defend her.

  "You were brave, yeah? Even if you don't know it." He let her know, letting her cry her fears out, Spike there to be the pillar through her terror.

  "Being scared doesn't mean you weren't strong. Means you knew how bad it was; and you still didn't freeze up. Brave, that." Spike's voice was steady and anchoring as he kept his arms wrapped around her shoulders, protective, solid, for Dawn as she made a small, broken sound into his shoulder. He tilted his head, resting his cheek briefly against the top of her hair, eyes unfocused as he listened to her breathing slowly begin to stutter into something less panicked, yet still frantic.

  "The door's ruined. Buffy's gonna freak out - We don't have money for this, Spike." Her voice was shaking when she spoke, Dawn’s grip tightened, fingers bunching in the wet fabric of his shirt.

  "We don't. We're already - we're already broke." Dawn's voice cracked. Spike huffed out a breath, something close to a scoff but without the bite.

  "Yeah, but you're safe now." Spike didn’t comment on the water soaking through her sleeves. Didn’t comment on the blood either. None of that maters.

  "It's done. I'm here." He said to her again, steady as stone, as Dawn lent back to assess the house. Spike didn't look at the damage.

  "It’s my fault. If I’d just - if I hadn’t been here alone - The table, the lamp, the door - Buffy’s gonna have to fix all of it and she already has too much and-!" Dawn stammered as her breath turned sharp and panicked. Dawn drifted away from Spike and to the house, trying to clean up the bits of the wreckage that were salvageable.

  "Dawn." He said, Spike stood not one pace away, soaked to the bone. Water dripped steadily from him onto the floor, pooling on the floor, mimicking the blood pooling in his shirt of dark cotton. Dawn jumped as the piece of a lamp in her hands crumbled. Spike bowed his head a moment, frustrated at the sight of her trying to keep the crumbling things together. Spike moved; boots squelching. Slow. Careful. Like he’s approaching something fragile. Girl her age shouldn't have to handle something so fragile.

  This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  "Hey. Stop a mo." Spike said, his voice steady, seeing the girl slow down, even as her words continued to tumble out in frantic confusion. Dawn stood in the middle of it all, arms wrapped tight around herself. Her breathing started to speed up again as her eyes darted from the broken door… to the shattered coffee table… to the dented walls.

  "We can’t afford this, Spike, we can’t! What if- what if more come, what if they keep coming, what if-" Dawn was saying, so Spike got her attention, his hands on her wrists, tugging her hands carefully from the crumbling furniture.

  "Dawn." He said again, slow, low, steady, deep tone.

  "Look at me, Bit." He said and his eyes frowned in concern at her as Dawn hesitated, but he felt his expression soften, as Dawn finally lifted her blue eyes at the warrior.

  "None of that matters right now." Spike said, his voice dropped, low and absolute. Dawn's baby blue eyes blinked up at him in teary confusion. He took a deep breath, couldn't believe that he'd have to explain this, that Dawn didn't already know:

  "Not the door. Not the sodding furniture. Not the money... You’re here." He told her, simple as that, confident words without any jot of question.

  "You’re breathing." He gave the girl's wrists a tiny squeeze, as if reminding her, she was alive, that it mattered.

  "That’s it. That’s the list." He told her, voice rising a fraction, because he just couldn't believe that she didn't know that. For as insightful as the little Bit was, she hadn't realised that her safety meant the world to those around her. How? Spike saw her lip tremble and he stood there, solid. Immovable. His eyes fixed on her, thinking to himself Dare you to argue with me, Bit.

  "But Buffy-" Dawn began and Spike immediately cut her off.

  "Buffy can handle doors." He snarled, not liking how little worth she put on her own life - when for him, it was all that mattered. Spike huffed low through his nose, feeling the frustration rising, and the man willed himself to calm down.

  "Look," Spike began, crouched so that he was closer to eyelevel with her again, the droplets of water falling from his curls unbidden.

  "I don't give a toss if the whole house falls down! ... We'll deal with it." He told her. Resolute, certain, promising her.

  "What I care about is you not thinking for one second this was your fault." He said and at that Spike managed to sound a little quieter, without losing strength, no less serious.

  "This was not your fault. Not a bit of it. Some ugly thing just picked the wrong house, that’s all." He said and stood tall, rolled his shoulders, the wound in his shoulder and the ones in his back didn't matter. He'd protected her.

  "But he was here for me." Dawn said, looking up at Spike, like her tiny shoulders could burden the weight of what had happened. Spike didn't miss a beat:

  "Yeah. And I was here for you too." He told her, his hands loosening from her wrists, shifting to hold her shoulders instead. Steadying. Reassuring her.

  "Long as I'm standing, nothing that comes through that door can get to you." He swore, the snarl on his voice impossible to hide, for the very thought of anything coming to harm her had the monster in him rearing for blood. Nothing touches her.

  Dawn still looked like there was some fraction of disbelief, some shadow of a doubt, and the vampire would hunt it down and destroy it, too.

  "Nothing’s getting to you through me. Alright?" Spike's voice was steady and unwavering, as he stood there unflinching. A wall, one between her and the damage, one she could lean against when she was afraid.

  "I was so scared." Dawn said at last, Spike's jaw tightened, as Dawn appeared to believe his words fully at last. Nothing will harm her, not while I'm here.

  "I know." He told her, voice steady and calm. But he managed the echo of a smile, the man trying to encourage her.

  "But I'm not going anywhere, and you're safe. I bloody swear it." Spike said through his teeth, unable to make it any more clear. Her fear broke then, Dawn leaning forward and pressing her forehead into him. Spike was there, letting her get it out, standing between Dawn and the wreckage of the house, waiting until her breathing slowed. Nothing gets past you to her.

  "Dawn?!" Buffy's scream was heard from Dawn's bedroom as soon as she'd made it back to their home. Spike heard the panic in her tone, and he suspected he could guess at the reason.

  The front door hung crooked on its hinges, cracked plaster accompanied splintered wood from destroyed furniture littered the floor, the living room looked like it had lost a war, there was shrapnel of dishes all across the kitchen and broken glass out the back door. The house is wrecked.

  Spike winced, he looked over to Dawn, who just shrugged.

  After Dawn had been calmed down, the night was more quiet. Nothing would get past him, and Dawn had accepted that, that much was clear. She even managed to smile.

  "Brave girl." Spike had said, more to himself than her, and yet she went on, wiped her eyes, damp sleeves of her clothes as she'd been hugging Spike, who was utterly soaked.

  "Thanks, Spike" She told him and looked at Spike like he'd hung the moon. He huffed, amused at how much she could recover from, returning her thanks with a pat of her head to the little Bit. He scanned the wreckage and placed himself squarely between her and the broken house, scanning the shadows again before even realising he'd done it.

  "Come on, let's get you upstairs. You ought to get yourself dried off; you've gotten yourself soaked." He reproached, ushering her to move out the front room and back up the stairs to her room, guiding her calmly, one hand hovering at her back the entire way. He threw one last look at the destruction left in his wake, grimacing at it, jaw tight, but he wasn't going to stop and let the little Bit out his sight.

  Quiet, raw, protective Spike, he'd shown no interest in snark or jokes, not until Dawn had been tucked in in her own bed and he knew she was safe. Even then, he'd waited at the foot of her bed, refusing to leave her unguarded after the attack had been over.

  "You need to change too." Dawn told him off, and he'd tried to refuse, but went ahead and changed when Dawn had raised her voice and started spiraling. Then, he gave her some snark, but thankfully Dawn seemed more at ease when he did that rather than spiral further. Spike was still sitting at the foot of her bed, when Buffy got home.

  "Dawn!" Buffy shouted again, more angry that time, fear and frustration mingling as one.

  "We're up here!" Dawn answered when she'd realised that she'd failed to answer her sister the first time that Buffy had called out to Dawn. Spike heard Buffy's steps as she ran up the stairs and waited...

  Spike changed, while Dawn used the phone. He was glad, she was distracted, so that he could wince and huff silently to himself as he went about the arduous task of putting on his clothes after sustaining all those wounds.

  "Buffy?" Dawn's hands fiddled nervously as she held the phone to her ear, though Spike had instructed her to remain nearby, still alert.

  "Don't freak out." Dawn said, her voice small, Spike unable to hear the other end of the conversation, but to be fair all his attention was being split evenly between keeping an ear out for any new signs of danger, and not making some pathetic noise when a particularly sharp pain had been triggered by his movement.

  "T-there was a demon... N-no, in the house." Dawn finally spat it out, then Spike did hear the reply from the other end. He turned over his shoulder while his shirt was still half way on, listening more closely a moment, to make sure it wasn't some howler demon making its way over to the home.

  "I’m okay! I’m okay-" Dawn rushed to say, and Spike scoffed, then braced himself as he pulled the clean black shirt over his head and swallowed down the pain. Buffy was worried about her little sis, and a torrent of questions had been loudly asked down the receiver. Spike approached, wanting to keep an eye on the Nibblet and loathe to have her out of his sight right then, when she was just attacked.

  "Spike was right here, he saved me." Dawn said, and that gave him pause... But Spike shook his head and kept walking. He came to accept it, he was there to protect her. He wasn't going to stop that role, he'd promised her... He lent on the wall beside her where she and Buffy spoke on the phone, on the good shoulder, not the one that got stabbed by a broken piece of wood.

  "No, no I won't go anywhere. I'll wait." Dawn said into the receiver and exhaled shakily, hanging up the phone.

  "She's on her way." Dawn said, but her eyes lowered. Spike suspected that he saw both relief, but also worry, at Dawn's declaration that her big sister was on her way. Spike watched her, but when Dawn said nothing more? He pushed off the wall and wrapped one arm around her shoulders, giving her a tight squeeze before ushering her on.

  "Come on." Spike said, not letting her linger on the worries that a child should not have had, maybe he could protect her even from that.

  "Time for sleep, Nibblet." Spike said and got Dawn to settle down in her own room. He didn't leave her side however, he kept watch, stayed right where he was.