I knew better than to shake her.  Trying to wake her would have been out of the question, as I could tell by the bullet hole that she was already gone.  Since Mom and Buffy had died, I had learned that it was best not to do those things.  It only built false hope that you knew wasn’t there to begin with.  I wasn’t about to leave though.  Even though her soul was gone, the least I could do was sit with her body and wait for someone to take it away.  After all, she wouldn’t have left me.

            People had a serious tendency to leave around here, whether they wanted to or not.  Dad had left, by his own admission.  I didn’t miss him anymore.  I couldn’t bring myself to miss a person didn’t have the decency to even give us a call when our mother died.  Then there was Mom.  I know she never meant to leave, but she did, just the same.  I missed her every single day and always wonder how things would have been different had she never died.  Then there was Buffy who died saving me and the rest of the world.  I always knew she would die saving the world, but I never imagined it would be so soon, nor could I have predicted how horrible it would be to lose her.

            She had come back, but I knew a part of her would be gone forever.  Not that I could blame her for that, after all, she had been in Heaven.  Who would want to leave there?  Still, she had been so cold and distant since then; I missed the other part of her terribly.  The only person I was able to confide in after her was now lying dead in front of me.  Tara.  The one who had left us, but never truly had.  Even when she and Willow had broken up, she was still there for all of us and I knew she always would be.  Now, she was truly gone.

            Everything was beginning to break apart.  Giles had gone back to England, leaving Buffy, which in his mind was supposed to help her, although I didn’t see how.  Xander had left Anya and as annoying as she could be, I missed her.  Buffy and Spike had seemingly broken up, which was a surprise to all of us since we didn’t know they were together.  Now Tara had left Willow and the rest of us forever. 

            “Dawn?”

            I looked up to see Buffy standing above me.  That was when whatever resolve I had completely melted.