Dawn attempted to ignored her surroundings. The slayer normally on door duty had taken a quick break, leaving her briefly in sole possession of the front desk. The Cleveland office was in an uproar with Willow and Kennedy engaged in their annual Valentines Day fight, and having just gotten back from a month at the Tokyo Council office, Buffy seemed intent on sleeping through it. She wished she could follow her sister's example.

Buffy had stumbled in the night before, mumbling something unintelligible about the Chinese and the French and saying that the next time they needed extra help in Tokyo they could have Faith, or if she wouldn't go they would get Riley, if she had to track him down herself in whatever jungle he was currently hiding in. Before going up to their apartment in the main building, she'd threatened to tear anyone who dared to disturb her into tiny pieces and mail them to Giles in London.

Even Xander stayed away from Buffy when she was in that kind of mood. He'd flown in from L.A. earlier in the week to check up on the work on the armory and adjoining library. Though he had an excuse, Dawn suspected she wouldn't see him until he was ready to leave. The last Cleveland apocalypse had spilled over into the Council office and had proven how insecure the main building really was if anything actually made it inside. This was just the first step in renovating the office to improve its security.

Until it was finished, Dawn was left scrambling to find a quiet corner she could use while translating the most recent prophecy someone had sent them from the London office. Watching the front entrance had seemed like the perfect plan at the time. With all of the new spells and alarms Willow had put around all of the entrances to the Council buildings in Cleveland there was no real chance of being surprised.

It also kept her away from Kennedy, who'd been in a bad mood for weeks, even before the immanent approach of Valentine's Day. Since finding out that no slayers, including herself, were allowed to go with Willow on an important quest for the Devon coven she'd made life miserable for everyone.

Sitting at the front desk, with her head buried in a Greek translation of an ancient Sumerian text she was using to cross-reference the prophecy, Dawn was startled by the loud buzz of the doorbell on the front door. They weren't in the middle of an apocalypse so it was too early for a pizza delivery. They also weren't expecting any visitors, and demons didn't usually ring the bell in broad daylight. The coven had promised to send them someone to help out while Willow was on their quest but she wasn't expected for at least another week.

Looking up curiously, she saw a woman approximately her height standing in the entrance, bundled up against the brisk cold of a Cleveland February. With none of Willow's alarms, even the magical ones, going off, Dawn let her into the lobby.

"I was told you needed a witch." the woman said, unbuttoning her coat, pulling off her woolen hat, and shaking out her red hair.

Notes:

• And this would be the end. For now.
• How she ended up in Cleveland is a story for another day. Just be aware it occurs between Part VII and the Epilogue.