Identity Crisis

Title Identity Crisis
Rating PG-13

Beautiful green energy. That's what Tara had seen, that's what the patients in the psych wing had all seen, that's what all the books described the Key as. So why was it that she never saw it herself? Why was it that all she saw was her? And not her as in the Key, but the tall, dark-haired, and still thankfully slim Dawn Summers?

She used the think that when she shut her eyes she would see the swirling green behind her eyelids. Hell, when she first found out about the whole Key thing, she'd kidded herself into seeing that green. Or had she just been kidding herself? Had it been real? And if it had been, then what did it mean now that she didn't see it?

Was she really normal now? Was she just Dawn?

And if she was, then who the hell was Dawn anyway? All her life she'd been defined by other people, she was Buffy's kid sister, she was the tag-along annoyance, she was The Key, she was - for a very brief period - a Potential... well, a potential Potential anyway, she was a trainee Watcher, she was...

She smiled a little. She was just Dawn.

And as she watched the second line form, she added another description to the list. She was going to be someone's mom.