Prompt #347- Sister - comlodge - BtVS (Dawn, PG)

[comlodge.livejournal.com]

Title: Little Sister
Author: comlodge
Charachters: Spike/Dawn
Genre: Fiction
Rating: PG
Summary: BTVS S5
Word Count: 547
Disclaimer: Not mine.

Spike seldom thought of the sister he had loved and lost as a human. It had been so long ago and he had been barely a teenager when she had been taken from them. Brain fever, the doctor had said when he came to apply the leeches and lotions that were the height of medical practice. William had even been sent to the apothecary. He had been close to his sister. They'd spent many hours together in the nursery, before he had been sent away to school at the age of twelve.

He'd been at school when Emily fell ill. So many Londoners died from the the perpetual smog that hung over the city through winter. Coupled with the weather it was an indescrimate killer. The rough medical practices of the day meant many people of all classes suffered and died. These days she would have been given antibiotics and perhaps she would have survived.  But then invalids were put to bed in an overheated room with closed windows and curtains. Leeches were applied and heated glass bowls along with mustard plasters and various tinctures made up in water.

By the time William had been able to get back from school, Emily was very ill. He was barely alowwed in her room and he had watched from the sidelines as the nanny and his mother had bustled about with bowls and cloths, the servants carrying armloads of wood into the room to stoke the fire. His father had been grey faced when he came into the room to tell him his sister had passed away. A pall settled over the house for the longest time.

He guessed that is why he felt as he did for Dawn. She reminded him of his younger sister. Oh, not the same temperament that's for sure. His sister, Emily, had been a proper young lady, as the times had dictated. Dressed in miles of petticoats and crinolines, always gloved and hatted when outside the house. Always chaperoned. They'd shared the same nanny, who was also Emily's tutor as was the style in those days. Girls were never educated outside the home, if at all. Fortunately their parents wanted every advantage for their children and Emily learnt to read and write from a very early age.

She was already learning the piano before she fell ill. She was quite accomplished even though she was so young. A natural talent. Like William she had a gift for the arts. Motehr was so proud of her needle work as well. That someone so young with such tiny hands could set the needle flying as she worked and she'd had a great talent for mixing and matching colours in her sampler work.

He snorted trying to imagine Dawn in long skirts, sitting demurely by a fireplace with a sewing hoop in her hands listening quietly whilst her elders conversed amongst themselves. No, Dawn was nothing like Emily and yet she was. She looked up to Spike. She listened to his stories with a rapt attentiveness. She babbled in his ear, telling him of her day. She hugged him and grabbed his hand when she was excited.

Yeah. She was a lot like Emily and she'd squeezed herself into his cold, dead heart. Just for herself.

Comments

[pssnfrt-ksss.livejournal.com]

This is beautiful, the insight into Spike's past and motivations, and especially that second last paragraph showing the similarities and differences between Dawn and Emily.

This brings you to four weeks straight, yes? Congratulations :)

[comlodge.livejournal.com]

Thankyou. I always liked th Spike/Dawn relationship. To me shows he was more than just trying to please Buffy. Yes 4 weeks - yeah. Though I really need to proofread betterer:D