Title: Mother's Day

Author: Jedi Buttercup

Rating: PG/K+; gen

Disclaimer: The words are mine; the worlds are not.

Summary: "So, it's Mother's Day this weekend," Cassie said, dropping her backpack on her dorm bed. 700 words.

Spoilers: Post-"Chosen"; a few years after SG-1 5.9 "Rite of Passage".

Notes: For lizbet0 for the drabble prompt, "Dawn with Cassie post-Trust Building, 'Mother's Day'." Originally posted to LJ on August 16.

"So, it's Mother's Day this weekend," Cassie said, dropping her backpack on her dorm bed.

Dawn glanced over at her roommate, then back down at her desk, uncapping a highlighter to sweep orange ink across a textbook quote she just knew was going to show up on her next test. "Yeah. Saw it on the calendar."

Cassie took a deep breath, a determined look on her face as she sat down next to her backpack.

Dawn knew the signs of an emotionally significant moment incoming. She and Cassie had exchanged a lot of secrets, especially since Cassie had accidentally revealed her telekinesis and they'd both come clean about their... unusual... origins. She already had a pretty good idea what this one was about, though.

"I, uh. Usually I hang out with Buffy, or one of our friends from Sunnydale," she decided to go first, recapping the highlighter and twiddling it between her fingers. "Mom was more a parent to them than most of theirs. And they all... know... and accept me just like Mom did. So I spend the day with people who loved her, too. But they're all, like, in Africa this year, so..." She shrugged.

Cassie gave her a grateful smile. "Yeah. So. You know how almost every other Saturday I go off campus to play chess?"

"With your mom's friend, right? The one she worked with?" Cassie hadn't explained the deets yet, but Dawn always got the impression Cassie thought of this Sam as another mom.

Cassie nodded. "She... when they first found me, they all thought I was gonna die. And Sam swore to stay with me to the end, even against orders. She promised it another time, too, when I was really sick, and that really... meant something to me. She couldn't adopt me, though, and she was always careful not to overstep things between me and Mom. But we still kept doing the chess thing every other Saturday as long as she was, uh, on base. And now that Mom's gone..." She bit her lip.

"It's not betraying your Mom to think of Sam that way, too, you know," Dawn said, abandoning the highlighter to go knock the backpack to the floor and sit down next to her friend. "Or, you know, your first Mom. You know how I told you I was made to order? We don't know all the hows or whys, but we know they used Buffy to do it. I fought her a lot after Mom died, when she tried to be all protective and rule setting and stuff... but, don't ever tell her this, okay? I appreciated it, too. She couldn't always be there for me because of her job, but when she was, I felt... safe. Loved, in a momlike way. And wherever Mom is now, I don't think she'd mind."

She knocked her shoulder against Cassie's; and Cassie flashed her a quick smile. "Yeah. Yeah, I get that. So, Sam's coming to pick me up for dinner on Sunday. The thing is..." She cleared her throat. "You want to come with?"

Dawn's eyebrows flew up in surprise. "You want me to break in on your sorta-Mom-time? Wouldn't I be a third wheel?"

Cassie sighed, then waggled her fingers. Dawn's abandoned highlighter rose from her student desk, spinning in little spirals, then clattered back down. "The thing is, she doesn't know it's back. It made me sick before, and afterward, we thought I'd been cured. And I want to tell her. But she'll get all worried, and it'll get awkward, and she might want me to get checked out, and..."

"Ah, got it," Dawn said knowingly, cutting in before Cassie could work herself up too far. "You want me along to provide a diversion."

"It's not like that!" Cassie objected, giving her a pleading look.

"I know, I know, don't sweat it," she said, slinging an arm around her roomie. "Sure, I'll be moral support. And... thanks. I wasn't looking forward to sitting around alone this year."

"No problem," Cassie replied, smiling in relief. "What are friends for?"

"Alcohol, sarcasm, inappropriateness, and shenanigans?" Dawn smirked.

"Besides that," Cassie rolled her eyes, and knocked her elbow against Dawn's side.

-x-