One-Shot: Dawn's First Time

[ozma914.livejournal.com]

Title: Dawn's First Time
Author: Ozma914

Summary: Post Chosen, Dawn has a first experience that goes very badly. Why isn't Faith more sympathetic? 600 words

Rating: PG
Warnings: Faith's attitude.
Disclaimer: I own practically nothing. This was written before the comic came out, although what happens to Dawn in the comic just goes to show how horribly wrong the first time always goes for Summers girls.

Characters: Dawn, Faith, Giles, various slayers.





Dawn sat huddled in a blanket, shivering violently. “It was horrible. Horrible!”

From where she stood by the door to the Watcher headquarters medical room, Faith shook her head. “Ironic, is what it was. You run around all over Europe for months, partying like a maniac, then this happens to you after one day in Chicago?”

“Faith, please.” Giles knelt by Dawn, gently cupping her hands in his own. “Dawn wasn’t prepared for this -- no one is, I suppose. It was a traumatic experience.” The three slayers Dawn had allowed in sent Faith indignant glares, but they’d become used to her flippant attitude since she returned from parts unknown just before Christmas.

“Whatever.” To hide a smile, Faith pretended to rub her nose. Sure, Dawn has suffered, but they were making way too big of a deal over this. She’d been through it herself, of course. It hadn’t been pleasant, but it was one of those things just about everyone experienced. After fighting demons and vampires, why raise such a fuss now?

Ah, but Dawn would always be the little sister, even here in Chicago, surrounded by many girls younger than her. As soon as she remembered how much she hated being treated like a kid, Dawn would be mortified that anyone else even knew it had happened.

Shaking his head sadly, Giles drew the blanket closer around Dawn’s still shaking form. “This is why I wanted you to all stay inside the building, for now. Things have changed. You’re not prepared, not conditioned --”

“Giles, this isn’t slayer business,” Faith said. “You don’t need to be in here, not for this.”

Dawn looked up, and to Faith’s surprise hurt shown in her eyes. “Is this what it was like for you?”

“For me? Honey, I was way too young to remember my first experience. But it gets better.”

“Yes, it does, or at least you get used to it,” Kara added, patting Dawn on the shoulder. When she saw Giles’ incredulous gaze, Kara drew herself up. “What, you think this doesn’t happen in southern Indiana?”

“Ah. I ... I had just thought you would be protected from such ...” Giles whipped off his glasses and began polishing them furiously.

“Welcome to the twenty-first century,” Rona told him. “You can’t protect kids from the world anymore.”

Faith nodded. “It’s nature, Giles.” Pushing past Vi, she knelt by Dawn, who still looked as miserable as when Giles had picked her up six blocks from the airport hotel. “Look, you’ll be okay. Just take a warm shower, sip on some hot chocolate, and the next time make sure you have enough protection.”

“Next time? There won’t ever be a next time. I’m never leaving Watcher headquarters again.” Dawn got to her feet and stumbled off, led by the protective cordon of Rona, Kara, and Vi. They continued to murmur comfort to the girl, so Faith held off until the door closed before she burst out laughing.

Giles glared at her. “Even you should have a little more sympathy. After all, it was her first time.”

“Yeah, it was the poor California girl’s first time, I know. But she was only out for a little while, and you rescued her before there was any permanent damage.”

Reluctantly, Giles nodded. “Still, she should have known better than to try and walk here. If we’d been notified that she took an earlier flight, we could have avoided all this.”

“It’s a life lesson for her, G-man. Now everyone will understand what winter can be like in Chicago.” Faith shrugged, then giggled again despite herself. “She did turn a funny color of blue, but at least nothing froze and fell off. It was only mild hypothermia.”

Huffing indignantly, Giles went off to turn up the thermostat.

Comments

[kanedax.livejournal.com]

okay, THAT was good. As a Minnesotan, I approve.

[ozma914.livejournal.com]

There you are, someone who has it even worse than us Hoosiers. *shivers in sympathy*

[copykween.livejournal.com]

Nice twist! And I can totally imagine Dawn turning it into a big drama. :)

[ozma914.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I had fun trying to hint at the twist without actually giving it away, and with Dawn's reaction. I had less fun trying to figure out why Faith suddenly showed up, unplanned, in this story, and what it meant about my mental state. :-)

[boy-named-susie.livejournal.com]

Hehe, too funny.

[ozma914.livejournal.com]

Glad you liked it! Oh, wait -- you don't mean literally too funny, do you? :-)

[petzipellepingo.livejournal.com]

As someone from the frozen Midwest, this is just...neat!

Spikey quote!

[ozma914.livejournal.com]

Yep, and the freezes just keep on coming ...

[a2zmom.livejournal.com]

I am completely sympathetic. I hate being cold.

[ozma914.livejournal.com]

I'm with you -- I had no trouble describing Dawn's reaction, I have it every single winter.

[lusciousxander.livejournal.com]

LMAO!! AWESOME twist.

[ozma914.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I love twists.

[mabus101.livejournal.com]

Muahaha! *sticks out tongue at Dawn*

Winters aren't usually all that cold here in western Kentucky, but they vary quite a bit, and I've been north from time to time. Moreover, I was born in December. I have no sympathy at all for a California girl in the winter.

Though that wasn't quite what I expected. I figured it wasn't what it seemed to be, but winter never occurred to me. ;)

[ozma914.livejournal.com]

Even after all these decades, I still despise midwestern winters. I'd already established in a previous story that a backup Watcher's facility was located in Chicago, and after one of those famous cold snaps I got to thinking about how a California girl would react to being uprooted -- the rest was easy!

My grandparents lived in southeastern Kentucky -- I remember how much excitement it raised whenever they had a dusting of snow down there, and naturally I was jealous. :-) To us it's just, "Ugh. More frakkin' snow".

Of course, I was born during a record heat wave in July, and the very next year we had record cold here in northeast Indiana -- I always wondered if that had anything to do with why I hate cold so much.

[mabus101.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I spotted said facility...I thought I'd commented on that fic.

Western Kentucky is one of those places where the weather changes hourly. Most winters, at least in my experience, have been relatively warm. But I've also been caught on the road by an ice storm in October. It's all the luck of the draw.

I love cold weather. I've been known to take off my jacket in 40-degree weather (Fahrenheit, obviously) just to freak people out.

[ozma914.livejournal.com]

I'm sure you did comment on the fic, and I'd just forgotten -- I've been stuffing so much into my brain lately that a lot of the more important stuff has been falling out. *sigh*

I've been known to wear a sweatshirt in 70 degree weather just to freak people out! Cold weather. Bleh. Ice storms. Ick. Give me Hawaii. Although who am I fooling? -- I'd probably be the first to install air conditioning in my island paradise. :-)

[zanthinegirl.livejournal.com]

Bwaa-haa-haa! My parents lost their minds and moved to the midwest a couple of years ago. Winter there is just not right!!

[ozma914.livejournal.com]

What -- they weren't born and raised here, but they came here anyway -- willingly?

I don't understand. It doesn't compute.

[zanthinegirl.livejournal.com]

I don't understand. It doesn't compute.

I know!! My sister married one of those guys who's family is actually from the midwest. At the time he was living in the Northwest, but they moved back to the flatlands. And so that's where the grandchildren are; thus the big parental move. My mom was out visiting last week and she kept talking about how beautiful the mountains are, how gorgeous the ocean is, how nice it is to see green, how when my dad retires they are sooo moving.... :D

[ozma914.livejournal.com]

Personally, I think from a standpoint of beauty Indiana stands right there with any other place in the country. We may not have mountains or oceans, but we've got lots of other great scenery (except during the winter). I love living here (except in the winter) and at this point wouldn't be easily talked into moving anywhere else (except in the winter).

However, if I'd originally lived *anywhere* warmer, there's no way I would move for any reason to colder climates! You've seen one blizzard, you've seen them all.

[zanthinegirl.livejournal.com]

You know, I'm trying to remember and I can't recall actually spending any length of time in Indiana. You have lots of green, and that's always good. No ocean though! And where do you go to ski?

[ozma914.livejournal.com]

Heh -- *I* don't go *anywhere* to ski! If it involves standing up, I'm going to fall down. I'd just as soon take on a good sledding hill -- if you can get me to go outside in the winter at all. However, there are cross country courses around here, and some downhill resorts not too far away up in Michigan. Although there's no ocean, there is the Dune National Park up along Lake Michigan -- and once a body of water is big enough that you can't see the other side, isn't it big enough? :-)

[gillo]

I recently read Gaiman's American Gods, so I can visualise it a bit - here snow is a)exciting and b) so rare it paralyses the entire country if we have more than an inch or two.

[ozma914.livejournal.com]

The Southwest of America is a lot like that; we in the midwest are enraptured and not a bit amused by the video of entire highways full of vehicles brought to a complete halt by half an inch of snow. When a blizzard warning was issued for this area last winter, half the population hopped into their cars to go "check it out". We'd have less traffic problems if we did not issue weather alerts.

[gillo]

To be fair, when snowfalls of more than six inches happen once a decade at most, it's not surprising that the authorities don't invest in the snow-blowers and snowploughs needed to keep roads clear. It's more cost-effective to close schools and have chaos for two days a year than to invest millions in expensive equipment which is idle the rest of the year. For teh same reason very few homes in Britain have aircon - we swelter for two to three weeks and the rest of the time we need heating more than cooling.

[ozma914.livejournal.com]

That makes sense to me; we put a lot of resources into both the snow removal and the air conditioning, here. I try to avoid air conditioning, myself, but sometimes even I have to retreat out of the humidity.

[gillo]

It seems there's a reason some parts of the planet became more densely-populated than others in the days before technology allowed us to pretend climate didn't happen. In winter we get chilly damp - just above or just below freezing for months on end and lots of wet, but nothing very extreme.

[ozma914.livejournal.com]

Hm ... much as I hate very cold weather, I have a feeling the chilly damp would get to me, just as quickly. Let's face it, some people *coughmecough* are just not cut out for the cold (just as some are not cut out for the hot!)

[gillo]

With cold as with heat, humidity seems to make it much worse. Our prevailing winds have three thousand miles of Atlantic to cross before hitting our islands. You can work out the maths.

[ozma914.livejournal.com]

Look on the bright side -- at least the hurricanes generally come our way. Although no one's ever froen to death in a hurricane. (that I know of)

[gillo]

True, but possibly because they've never been able to scrape enough bits together to test for hypothermia.

Of course the definition of a hurricane as a "tropical storm" does also tend to argue against too much lowering of temperature.

We get your worn-out hurricanes, much reduced by passage across the Pond but still blustery enough to be a nuisance.

[ozma914.livejournal.com]

Sorry you have to get the hand-me-down storms ...

Have you ever heard of a sub-tropical storm? It looks and acts a lot like a hurricane, but is caused by unusually cool air going across normal temperature water, rather than by warm water heating the atmosphere. There was one churning along our east coast this week. It makes me wonder if someone could at least suffer hypothermia in a hurricane ... :-(

[scarlettlily.livejournal.com]

That was awesome and how did she not know to check the temp before going outside?

[ozma914.livejournal.com]

Oh, that's easy: She was born and raised in southern California, and never traveled out of the state. Compared to Chicago, they simply have no climate change there to speak of -- it never occurred to her that a coat might actually be a matter of life and death!