Chapter 2: All that's left
“Buffy, are you alright?” Giles asked from outside the bathroom door. The sounds of vomiting and sobs in between were his answers. “Do you need anything?” He asked pensively.
“Spike.” Came Buffy’s muffled reply, followed by more sobbing.
“Yes, of course,” Giles sighed heavily for his heart-broken slayer. “I understand what you’re going through Buffy…” Giles said, drudging up his painful memories of Jenny. “And I’m sorry…for what it’s worth.”
For a long while all Giles could hear inside the bathroom were muffled sobs and sniffles. Feeling completely useless, Giles sighed.
“I’ll be just outside…if you need anything.” He said sadly as he moved away from the door.
* * *
“I mean, yeah, sure they could have been manipulated…even staged.” Willow said, examining the photographs.
“Can you tell for certain?” Giles asked.
“Well, for the manipulating part, yeah… as for the staging part…” Willow shook her head regretfully. “Not even magic could detect that.”
“Let’s start with that then.” Giles gave her a weak smile. Willow nodded and started about her task.
Giles stood and walked over to the corner with the mountain of pillows, where he found Dawn curled upon herself, silently sobbing.
“Dawn,” Giles crouched down next to her. “How are you doing?”
“Bloody awful.” She said between sobs. Giles smiled painfully at her choice of words. “How is Buffy?” Dawn asked.
“Not any better than you, I’m afraid. She’s taking it awfully hard…” Giles sighed. “Dawn…it’s going to be very difficult for the two of you for awhile. It will hurt…” Giles said truthfully, “and sometimes it feels like it will never go away…but over time, it will get better.”
Dawn nodded sadly. “I just…” She chocked on another sob, “I just can’t believe he’s gone.” She said as more tears streamed down her face.
“As strange as it is to say it…I believe I’ll miss him as well,” Giles took off his glasses and wiped them. “I’ll always respect the way he treated the two of you.”
“Giles,” Dawn looked up at him with a questioning look, “Do you think he’s in…hell?”
“I…I don’t know Dawn. None of us really know where we go when we die…”
“But he was a demon.” More tears streamed down her face, “Isn’t that, like a one way ticket?”
“I suppose so.” Giles said with difficulty. Suddenly he gave her a scathing look, “You’re not thinking of resurrecting him, are you?”
“No. He wouldn’t want that.” Dawn said sadly. “After Buffy returned…he was angry.”
“Angry?” Giles furrowed his brows.
“He knew that Willow had to use Black Magic to bring her back…he didn’t like that at all… because…” Dawn trailed off.
“Because there was a great chance of something going wrong.” Giles finished for her, nodding in agreement. “That’s sage advice.” Giles nudged her arm warningly. Dawn nodded in understanding.
More tears flooded her eyes. “Giles, what are we going to do?”
He let her lean against his shoulder and did all he could do:
“There, there.” He patted her back as he let her cry.
* * *
Hours later Buffy exited the bathroom and walked into the main room of the shop. It gave Dawn a chill to realize that she looked very much like she had the night after she was resurrected.
Her eyes were empty, and she looked pale. She walked up to the round table where Willow and Tara were seated and picked up the photographs to look at them. Her eyes were cold and her movements were automatic. In short, she was like a zombie.
“Buffy?” Willow asked tentatively.
Buffy raised her empty eyes and looked at Willow…looking, but not really seeing. Without a word, Buffy picked up the Amulet of Bytanor and the small box of ashes, and walked out the front door of the shop into the cloudy afternoon. They watched her leave in silence, no one knowing what to do.
“Goddess, what a mess.” Willow blinked back her tears and leaned into her girlfriend’s shoulder.
“I’ll go after her…just in case.” Giles volunteered and followed after Buffy.
* * *
Giles found Buffy outside Spike’s crypt, watching the sunset standing next to a nearby tree.
“Buffy?” Giles called to her. He knew she could feel his presence long before he approached her, despite her sorrow.
“This is all that’s left…” Buffy said to him without turning to face him. She held in her hands the little box of ashes. “It just doesn’t seem right…there should be something more to him than this. There should be a body to burry…a place for people to visit and place flowers on his grave…” Buffy said fighting back tears that threatened to spill any moment, “He should have a headstone.”
“We can get all of those things Buffy.” Giles told her and then frowned, “Except for the body, that is.”
“He was more than this…” Buffy said, looking down at the ashes. “He loved us Giles…He really loved us…” the tears finally slid down her cheeks, “This wasn’t supposed to happen…I always thought I would die before he did…and he’d take care of Dawn. He’d raise her…and keep his promise to protect her.” She clutched the box of ashes to her chest and broke down in crying.
Giles embraced her in a fatherly hug. He wanted so desperately to say something, but he knew nothing could be said.
Sometimes the pain is just too difficult to bear.
* * *
Willow set down the photographs and magnifying glass with a miserable sigh.
“Nothing?” Tara asked her.
Willow shook her head. “They haven’t been tampered with, not so far as I can tell anyway.”
“So then he’s r-really…?” Tara asked sadly. At Willow’s nod, tears formed in Tara’s eyes. “Oh Goddess…I was really hoping…I-I mean… he was a friend… you know?”
“I know honey…I know.” Willow said with tears in her eyes, still looking down at the photographs.
“Where do you t-think he went?” Tara asked, and from Willow’s confused look she continued, “ I-I mean, a-after he died…He was a vampire. Doesn’t that mean h-he went to hell?”
“I don’t know…where ever he went…I hope it’s a nice place.” Willow smiled sadly.
* * *
Spike found he was in darkness…he was badly disoriented. He didn’t know which way was up, or if there even *was* an ‘up’. Things felt like they were moving in slow motion, his brain unable to process the information he was receiving…which thankfully at the moment, wasn’t much.
He heard a loud clanking noise, like metal on metal, and the sound of hinges squeaking. It took a great deal of effort to open his heavy eyelids, and even then, the images he got were blurry. He could tell by the clamminess of cold stone on his skin he was laying on the floor. There was a dim light source a few feet away, making it even more difficult to focus on things.
“Ah, Mr. Spike. I see you are awake now.” A British accent from across the way forced his brain to try and process more. Blurry objects now became fuzzy, and fuzzy objects focused into normal vision. He was in a small dark room, with a cot at one end, a sink attached to the wall and an extremely heavy steel door with no handle from the inside. Spike sat up with great difficulty and propped himself up against the wall as he tried to get his bearings.
“It will take you awhile to recover from the effect of the drugs, but I gather you have enough presence of mind to answer a few questions.” The British voice said. Spike followed the sound of the voice to the darkened corner near the steel door and sure enough there was the outline of a man standing there.
“Where th’ ‘ell am I?” Spike asked, the effect of the drugs slurring his words.
The British man chuckled and stepped out of the shadows. He was wearing a tweed suit and very much resembled a shorter and plumper Giles. Spike internally groaned.
“You are now a prisoner of the Council of Watchers, in London England.” The man said coldly, “You are in hell, Mr. Spike.”
“It’s *just* Spike… you wanker.” Spike spit out with difficulty. The drugs were making it hard to talk. “’C’mere so I can rip your intestines… through your nose.”
“Yes, charming…” The man practically hissed, “I can tell that our visits together will be…interesting, to say the least.” He replied, clearly thinking the opposite.
“Who the hell are you?” Spike demanded, feeling a flash of anger. “And why am I here?”
“As for why you are here…” The man strolled closer to Spike casually, “We decided it was no longer prudent for you to remain in Sunnydale near the Slayer. She has developed an unhealthy attachment to you, making her judgments questionable. We thought it best to…” the man grinned sardonically, “Remove you.”
Spike bristled at the man’s tone of voice. It was foreboding and seemed to conceal much malice.
“We?” Spike narrowed his eyes at the man, “The Council?”
The man smirked at him and nodded. Spike knew he was pretty well fucked.
“So who the hell are you then?” Spike asked, his drug addled brain trying to decipher a way to escape.
“My name…” The man said with an air of arrogance, “Is Quentin Travers.”
* * *
The Summer's home, two weeks later...
“She won’t come down?” Giles asked Dawn as she came down the stairs and into the living room where he had been waiting.
Dawn shook her head sadly. “No… She’s just sitting up there staring at the box with that blank look on her face.”
Giles rubbed his face with his hand wearily, at a loss of what to do. “She’s taking this incredibly hard.”
“We all are.” Dawn whispered with her head down. Giles stepped closer to her and put his hand on her shoulder.
“I think…the best way you can honor his memory…is to continue on. He wanted you to live, Dawn. So I suggest you honor his wishes.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean a certain young man that has been calling to offer his condolences, that you keep refusing to speak to.”
“Oh…” Dawn fidgeted. “That.”
“I understand how difficult things have been…but your grades have been falling…and at times you seem to withdraw into yourself.” Giles spoke like a concerned father. “He wouldn’t want you to carry on like this.”
Dawn snorted. “Yeah, tell that to Buffy.”
Giles winced slightly. “Well I would… if she would only speak to me.” He said, trying to mask the hurt in his voice, but Dawn caught it.
“It’s not personal Giles. She just shut down, that’s all. She really loved him…and then suddenly he’s gone. She had warnings, and now she feels guilty for not saying anything. Plus it doesn’t help that she keeps throwing up everything she eats.”
“It’s gotten that bad?” Giles felt a pang of ache go through him.
“She lost about ten pounds…as if she wasn’t skinny enough in the first place.” Dawn muttered.
“I don’t think she’s doing it on purpose Dawn. She’s just in mourning…” Giles explained, but was cut off by a sharp knock on the front door. Giles went to the door and peaked out the window. With a heavy sigh he opened the door.
“Jonathan.” Giles greeted, moving aside for the young man to enter.
“Hey.” Jonathan nodded his head in greeting to the Watcher. “Hi Dawn. Ready to go patrolling?” He asked the two of them.
“Yes, just let me gather the weapons.” Giles told him as he walked to the weapons chest and brought out a dark gym bag sitting next to it.
“I’ll go tell Willow and Tara we’re leaving.” Dawn said as she
ran up the stairs.
Jonathan had become a more pronounced member of the gang. Spike had taught him well during the few training sessions they had together, but after Spike disappeared, Giles had continued to train Jonathan and Dawn (although she needed it less), and slowly Jonathan became a more confident fighter. Jonathan had actually started to enjoy the patrols that he and the Scooby gang had taken up in Buffy and Spike’s absence.
Dawn came trotting down the stairs, and Giles had finished packing
the weapons bag, so the unlikely trio headed out to the cemeteries of Sunnydale.
* * *
London, England, Watcher's Headquarters....
“I told you… to piss off.” Spike managed to spit out. The bastards from the Council of wankers had been keeping him on a tight schedule:
Starve him of blood for three days, beat the crap out of him, ask him questions, beat him up more when he refused to answer, leave him some blood when he was dangerously close to passing out from exhaustion and hunger, then repeat the whole process over again. The blood was always drugged to take away his strength, and he was reminded of Buffy’s birthday when they had taken her strength from her. The wankers were probably using the same drug on him.
“Really now Mr. Spike, no need to be rude.” The Watcher that was grilling him replied sarcastically. Each day they gave him a new torturer, but every so often Quentin Travers himself would ask the questions while a younger and stronger Watcher would beat the crap out of him.
“What was your human name, first and last?” The man asked Spike, undaunted by his swearing.
“Go to hell.”
The watcher delivered a swift uppercut to Spike’s jaw. Spike simply spit the blood out of his mouth and turned a defiant and mockingly cheeky grin to the Watcher. A grin that clearly said: ‘Eat shit’.
The Watcher glared at him and continued to ask him questions. After a time Spike started to answer them…but with more creative answers.
“Who was your Sire?” The Watcher asked.
“Scooby Doo.”
The Watcher gritted his teeth in annoyance, his patience clearly running out.
“Who were your human parents?”
“Miss Piggy and Daffy Duck.”
Clearly seething in anger, the Watcher promptly signaled for two large muscular Watchers to beat Spike. When they were through the Watcher that had been questioning him took up his pencil and pad of paper again.
“Who was your Sire?”
“Your Mum” Spike replied defiantly, which prompted another beating.
* * *
Sunnydale, Summer's residence, six weeks after Spike's disapperance...
“Giles, I’m scared. She throws up all the time. She’s been doing better about leaving her room, but she always seems to get sick at really odd times. Plus she keeps complaining about headaches.” Dawn told him fearfully. “It was like this with mom…” She said, tears coming to her eyes.
“Oh Dawn, no. I’m sure it’s not that.” Giles put a reassuring hand on her shoulder. “I’ll tell you what, we’ll set up a doctor’s appointment for her, alright? Then you’ll see, nothing is wrong.”
Just then the front door opened and Xander and Anya entered the house, well tanned and wearing Hawaiian shirts.
“ALOHA!” Xander called out cheerfully as he closed the door behind them.
“Xander, Anya! You’re back!” Dawn ran and hugged them.
“Hey Dawnie! Look! I got you a lei. Now you can honestly say you’ve been ‘leid.” Xander quipped as he placed the necklace of pink and white flowers around her shoulders.
“Ha, ha.” Dawn rolled her eyes at his lame joke. Xander spotted Giles and walked up to him, giving him a manly handshake.
“G-man! Don’t go getting jealous, I got you a lei also!” Xander said, and before Giles could stop him he placed the wreath of flowers about his shoulders.
“Ah, yes, thank you, Xander. And stop calling me that.” Giles said as he squinted dubiously at the pink flowers about his neck.
“So where are the two lovely Wiccas?” Xander said, holding up his arm still filled with several leis. “I wanna ‘lei them too!” Xander grinned.
“He just likes to use that word a lot.” Anya explained, slightly annoyed with him.
“They went out to a movie. They should be back any minute. So how was your two month long honeymoon in Hawaii?” Dawn prodded jealously.
“It was great! We had lots of sex on each of the islands. Oh, and sex on the beach? The alcoholic beverage is great, but the actual thing is not as romantic as it sounds…you get sand in the most uncomfortable --mphmph!“
“ANYA!” Xander quickly clamped his hand over her mouth before she could finish, but unfortunately Giles and Dawn were grimacing anyway, having heard enough to do the damage.
“So…uh…how’s Buffy?” Xander asked fidgeting.
Xander and Anya had received a call from Giles shortly after they had found out about Spike’s dusting. The honeymooning couple had offered to cut their vacation short, but Giles insisted that they stayed and enjoyed their time. Xander had hung up the phone with a sobering thought; ‘You never know when you will loose the one you love’. So he and Anya stayed.
“A little better, though she is still awfully sick. In fact, we were just discussing scheduling her a doctor’s appointment just as you arrived.” Giles told them.
“Doctor? She’s that bad?” Xander asked.
“She’s become awfully skinny…although I don’t think she knows she’s doing it to herself…she just seems to be in some kind of a daze most of the time.”
“Man…” Xander said, shaking his head, “This is worse than with Angel…isn’t it?”
A grim silence fell upon them all when they realized the depth of the problem.
“I wish mom was here. I don’t know what to do.” Dawn cried helplessly.
No one knew what to say to that, so an awkward silence fell upon the room.
Just then Willow and Tara walked through the front door, back from their movie date.
“You’re home!” Willow immediately hugged him and Anya.
“Yeppers, and I come bearing gifts.” Xander placed a lei around both girl’s shoulders, only resisting using the ‘lei’ joke because of Anya’s murderous glare.
They all went into the living room and discussed what had been happening in Sunnydale while the honeymooners were away, and soon they had gotten so loud that Buffy came downstairs and watched her friends in secret from the staircase.
For the first time in a very long time, Buffy felt like an outsider. She had once been the pack leader, the reason why the Scoobies were in existence… but now she felt so detached from everything. She felt exactly like she had when she was torn from heaven …but this time Spike wasn’t here to catch her when she fell.
Buffy quietly crept back upstairs so that her friends wouldn’t know she had ever been there. She closed her bedroom door behind her as she entered the darkened room, and opened the third drawer on her dresser.
There in the drawer sat all of Spike’s clothes, most of them
black jeans and t-shirts, but a few dark blue and green colored t-shirts that
she had practically forced him to buy and wear. Then of course there were his
deep red silk button-down shirts that he always seemed to be wearing over the
black t-shirts. Next to the silk red shirts, was a dark-blue one. She smiled
painfully as she remembered their’ last shopping trip together.
Two months earlier...
“Oh come on Spike.” Buffy held out the dark blue silk button-down shirt at him. “Please?”“No way.” Spike muttered as he pushed aside hangers full of clothing, all of which Spike seemed to be scowling at. They were at the mall, in a store called the Bon Marchce, a fashionably high priced clothing store.
“Why not? It’s the perfect color for you.” Buffy turned the shirt over in her hands, examining it to see if Spike could see something wrong with it that she didn’t.
“Because.” Was Spike’s terse reply as he continued searching the clothes racks.
“That is *so* not a reason.” Buffy continued to follow him with the shirt.
Spike stopped and sighed as he took the garment in his hands, holding it up to her as if the reason were obvious. “It’s blue.”
“So?”
“If you haven’t noticed, the only colors I wear are black and red.” Spike shoved the blue silk shirt on a nearby rack, and turned to search another rack. Buffy grabbed the blue shirt again and followed him insistently. She caught up to him as he was perusing the table of black jeans.
“Oh just try it on. Please? It matches you’re eyes.” Buffy said as she placed her hand on his chest and slid it down his torso, lingering dangerously close to his crotch. “I bet it’ll look sexy.” She smirked at the surprised, although delighted look in his eyes.
“Oh yeah?” Spike bit his lip as her hand moved slowly downward. A mischievous smile splayed across her face.
“Yeah.” She said huskily as she stepped closer to him. Suddenly Spike looked up.
“’Evinin ma’am.” Spike nodded his head to an 80 year-old woman just two racks away. The woman gave the pair a sour look and then stalked off, looking completely scandalized.
They both couldn’t help but laugh.
“So…” Buffy had turned bright red, “Go try this on.” She said, shoving the silk blue shirt into his hands.
“Pet, I love you…but no way in hell.” Spike said as he held out the garment to her again. Buffy got that impish look in her eyes again.
“Tell you what….how about I help you put this on?”
Spike half purred, half growled in excitement. “Ms. Summers, I do believe that hanging around with evil Vampires has rubbed off on you. First scandalizing old ladies, and now this?”
“What can I say, I’m evil.”
Spike snorted. “What, you’ve been borrowing Harmony’s ‘Evil for Dummies’ book then?”
“Shut up.” She slapped him in the chest, but couldn’t keep from laughing at the thought.
“That bint’s so stupid, I bet she’s still looking in every book store she comes across for it…” Spike snorted.
* * *
Several States away...
“Damn it Jerry! We must have been to a hundred book stores!” Harmony’s whiny cheerleader voice rang out throughout the lair.
“Uh, most beautiful one, we haven’t checked the Barnes and Noble on 3rd street.” The minion named Jerry said. Harmony got a furious look on her face and the three minions that accompanied her looked terrified of their Sire.
“Damn it, that’s not the point!” Harmony stomped her foot in frustration like a little brat. “You know what… I’m beginning to think…” Harmony trailed off, pondering.
“That it doesn’t exist?” Jerry finished for her boldly.
“No you big idiot!” Harmony smacked him upside the head, “That it’s just out of print! It must be a very popular book.” She said with an airy smile of intelligence, with her hands on her hips.
* * *
Back in Sunnydale, Buffy and Spike's shopping trip...
“I wouldn’t doubt it.” Buffy agreed loftily. “Now come on. Quit trying to change the subject.” She said holding up the blue shirt.
Spike rummaged through the clothes rack and pulled out a small pink shirt with a red heart in the center, with silver sparkle letters saying “Sweetheart” across it. “You think Nibblet would wear something like this?” He asked her absently.
“Spike…”
“Is this her size? I think I’ll get it for her.”
“Ugh! Come on you big baby!” Buffy grabbed his arm and drug him into the changing rooms with the shirt.
“Buffy, love…” Spike protested, but she shoved him into an empty changing room and locked the door behind them. He stopped protesting when she pulled him to her, kissed him savagely and started undressing him.
Thirty minutes later, a very disheveled Spike stumbled up to the cash register and paid for the blue silk shirt. He had decided that he liked shopping with Buffy.
Present day, Buffy's room...
Tears were sliding down Buffy’s face as she ran her hand over the smooth blue silk shirt. She sighed and closed the drawer, walking back to her bed. She pulled out of her pocket Spike’s Amulet of Bytanor and sat on the bed with it. Sometimes it made her feel better to hold it when she missed him. She sat there gazing at the moonstone, and suddenly it struck her. She held the stone up to the light to see if it was just a shadow, but it wasn’t.
She got up and walked downstairs. Her friends were still talking about Xander and Anya’s honeymoon when she got to the bottom of the stairs.
“Buffy!” Dawn smiled, truly happy to see her sister.
“What would turn the amulet blue?” Buffy said, holding up the amulet. Dawn frowned.
“Blue, you say?” Giles got up and took the amulet from her to examine it.
“It was white before, remember? It’s blue now. Why would it turn blue?”
“I’m not sure…girls?” Giles turned to Willow and Tara.
“I-I don’t know. That’s odd.” Willow shrugged.
“C-can I see that?” Tara asked and Giles handed it to her. She turned it over in her hands and held the stone up to the light. “It’s definitely changed. I don’t recall reading anything about the stone changing color though.”
“I assume you read about it in the Vampyres book?” Giles asked her as she handed it back.
“Yeah…it was all we could find. There was a small passage about it.” Willow shrugged.
“We should research this.” Giles said.
“Wow, it sure is good to be home.” Xander sighed.
“Yes well, I get to say the same every time I get a concussion. Consider yourself lucky.” Giles muttered. “I’ll go call Jonathan and ask him to bring the book.”
“That little pipsqueak is watching my shop?!” Anya nearly fainted. “What if he steals something?!”
“Xander…Anya… your back. How long…?” Buffy asked, confused.
“Oh, no worries Buffster, we just got back today.” Xander rushed to reassure her.
“Oh. Good.” Buffy said in a dazed kind of voice.
“Ah! Look, I brought you a lei.” Xander said as he placed a purple lei around her neck.
“Oh…thanks…pretty.” Buffy said, fingering the flowers.
“HELLO?! What about my shop?!” Anya said. “I can’t believe you guys would leave all my money in the hands of that little nerd! What if he breaks something? What if he sells something for half price?”
“Wow, now I can honestly say I’ve seen someone have a ‘tizzy’.” Dawn muttered.
* * *
Twenty minutes later...
“Ah, good, Jonathan, come in.” Giles said as he opened the door for the younger man.
“Hey guys…hey…Buffy.” Jonathan said, surprised to see her.
“What have you been stealing?!” Anya demanded immediately.
“Hu?” Jonathan stopped dead in his tracks.
“Anya…” Giles started to say.
“No! I want to know! Ever since Spike went ‘poof’ you all have been letting my shop get run by whoever! Who knows what the little pipsqueak has stolen!” Anya pointed at him accusingly.
“ANYA! That’s enough!” Giles raised his voice. “We’ve done the best we can considering the circumstances. Have some respect! If not for Spike, than for Buffy!” Giles gestured to Buffy, but she was no longer there. “Buffy?”
“Great! Now look what you did! That was the first time she’s been out of her room willingly! You can be such a thoughtless bitch sometimes!” Dawn cried angrily at Anya and ran out of the room.
Anya honestly looked stricken.
* * *
Over Seas, The Watcher's Head Quarter's...
“I died…So many years ago…” Spike sang sluggishly.
“He’s completely unresponsive now, sir. He just keeps singing that song.” A male watcher told Quentin Trevers, gesturing to Spike. The two Watchers were in a small room connected to Spike’s prison cell by a thick pane of one-way mirror.
“But you can make me feel…like it isn’t so.”
“Just that one part. He keeps repeating it. I wonder what it means.” They younger Watcher pondered out loud.
Quentin snorted. “It probably has something to do with the Slayer. Either that or he’s going crazy. Check into it.” he said and left the room like he had more important things to do.
“Y-yes sir.” The Watcher said, turning to look in at Spike again. The drugged Vampire was sitting on the cold cement floor, staring at the opposite wall, still singing that one verse softly.
The Watcher was betting that the Vampire was going crazy.
* * *
Back in Sunnydale...
“Buffy?” Dawn knocked on Buffy’s door.
“Come in Dawn.” Buffy’s muffled voice came from behind the closed door. Dawn opened the door and closed it quietly behind her.
“Are you okay?” Dawn asked as she sat down next to Buffy on her bed.
“Yeah.”
“Liar. It’s okay if your not, you know… I’m not.” Dawn offered Buffy a sad smile. Buffy nodded in understanding.
“I just wasn’t ready for Anya I guess.” Buffy said, grimacing.
“Yeah… I kinda blew up on her down there…” Dawn admitted. There was an awkward silence between the sisters.
“So…” Dawn said.
“It hurts.” Buffy said, tears in her eyes.
“Oh Buffy, I know…” Dawn started to say.
“No, I mean, *it hurts*!” Buffy said again. Dawn finally noticed Buffy was clutching her abdomen. She winced in pain again.
“Buffy? Are you okay?”
“OW!! …no!” Buffy clutched her abdomen harder.
“What is it? What should I do?” Dawn asked.
“Ahh! I don’t know…Aaah God!” Buffy started crying in pain.
“Oh God…GILES!!” Dawn screamed.
* * *
Sunnydale General Hospital...
“Dawn Summers?”
Dawn immediately jumped out of her chair and ran to meet the doctor. “How is she?”
Giles, Willow, Tara, Xander, Anya and Jonathan also walked over.
“She’s fine. We still don’t know what is wrong with her, but I needed to ask you some questions.” The doctor said, taking out a clipboard. He walked with Dawn to some nearby chairs and motioned for her to sit.
“Has your sister been experiencing any health problems lately?” The doctor asked.
“Uh, yeah, she’s had headaches, and she throws up a lot…”
The doctor wrote down her answer.
“Has your sister been depressed lately?” He asked.
“Well, yeah. Her boyfriend died not too long ago…She’s been real upset.” Dawn said, frowning.
“How long ago was that?”
“About a month and a half.” Dawn wiped a stray tear from her eye.
“Oh…I’m sorry… were you two close?” The doctor set down his chart.
“Yeah… he was my best friend. He was like a father to me.” Dawn said, stifling back a sob. “Is my sister going to be okay?”
“I don’t know yet. I have to run some tests first, but it’s probably just stress. I’ll check back, okay?” The doctor said. Dawn nodded and the doctor stood and left.
Not long after Anya shuffled over to Dawn and sat in the chair next to her.
“Um, hi.” Anya said nervously. Dawn just gave her a look. “Okay, I’m not that good with this apologizing stuff…but I’m sorry. I just freaked out because I haven’t made any money for so long, and it’s been over 24 hours since I had sex. I didn’t mean to upset Buffy, or make her sick…plus hey, I miss him too you know.”
“You do?” Dawn gave her a disbelieving look.
“Yeah. He understood what it’s like.” Anya said sadly.
“What what is like?”
“Being an outsider. Being a demon in Buffy’s little group. You guys might not realize it, but you treat us different. And he understood.” Anya started to get a little teary eyed, and at great length said: “You know… I think I finally get this death thing now.”
Anya stood and ran to the women’s bathroom, crying.
* * *
Meanwhile in L.A., the Lobby of the Hyperion Hotel, Angel Investigations...
“Cordelia, what’s this?” Angel asked, holding up a letter from the phone company that was stuck under a stack of bills.
Cordelia took a glance at the paper.
“Uh, a phone bill?”
“An overdue long distance phone bill.” Angel handed it to her. “To Sunnydale. For an hour and a half.” Angel complained.
“Well yeah! You’re the one that stuck me with calling Buffy to explain to her everything!” Cordelia threw her hands up in the air in frustration. “What, did you think that was gonna be a ten minute phone call?” Cordelia held her hand up to her ear as if holding a phone to it. “Hi Buffy!” Cordelia mocked, “Guess what? I just had a vision. Angel has a son, and they are coming to visit so they can kill something. Nice chatting with you, bye!”
Angel gave her a withering glance. “Cordelia…”
“If you think I’m gonna pay for that phone call, you can just
think again bust-eeeeeerrr!!” Cordelia pressed her hand to her head as a vision
unfolded before her eyes, taking her off guard.
The scene flashed rapidly and Cordelia was starting to feel nauseous from the spinning. Briefly she saw men dressed in suits sitting around a long dark wood table in a dark stuffy room. Then it closed in on an older stuffy looking man, one that Cordelia didn’t recognize.
“We must deal with this immediately.” The man’s voice echoed Cordelia’s head. “We must remove the Vampire from the Slayer before this gets out of hand. It may already be too late. The prophecy could already be in affect.”
The scene flashed again, to a different man in the room, sitting at the head of the table shrouded in shadows.
“If we are to move on this, we must deal with it delicately. The Slayer… Must not know we are involved,” The man said. Cordelia recognized the voice, but she just couldn’t place it. “It could mean a war.”
The vision subsided as quickly as it came, leaving Cordelia with a
feeling of impending doom.
“Oh God… Angel...”
“It’s okay Cordy, just tell me what you saw.” Angel said, holding her by the shoulders.
“A bunch of old stuffy men sitting at a table. I don’t know who they were, it was too dark to see. They were discussing Buffy and ‘the Vampire’, talking about removing him from her. He said that if the Slayer were to find out they were involved, it could mean a war. God Angel, whatever they’re planning, it’s not good, I can feel it in my bones.” Cordelia shivered and rubbed her arms as if to comfort her self.
“They didn’t say who ‘the Vampire’ was?”
“No, they just referred to him as ‘the Vampire’.” Cordelia shook her head.
“Well…it could be Spike.” Angel suggested. “Hey, now that I think of it, he hasn’t called me in a long time to make fun of me…he usually likes to do that at least once a week.”
“Or it could be about you.” Cordelia looked at him worriedly.
“I doubt it. I’m not really a part of Buffy’s life any more.” Angel shrugged.
“Angel, they said something about a prophecy. You’re the only vamp around that I know with a prophecy.”
Angel glanced at her apprehensively, but sighed in agreement.
“Well, I’ll be on the look out for stuffy old men tracking me down.” He gave her a small smile. “Now about this phone bill.” He picked it up off the floor where she had dropped it, and held it up to her again.
“Ugh! You are such a tight end!” Cordelia threw up her hands in frustration.
* * *
Back in Sunnydale, the General Hospital...
“Ms. Summers?” A Nurse called Dawn over as she walked through the double doors into the waiting room. “You can go see your sister now. The rest of you will have to wait until later.”
“I want Giles to come with me.” Dawn told the Nurse. Giles stood next to Dawn.
“Are you family, sir?”
“Er..well...” Giles fidgeted.
“He’s her Mentor…he’s like a father to her.” Dawn said.
“Well okay, but the rest of you are going to have to wait.” The nurse said and led them back to Buffy’s room. She was hooked up to IV drip bags, but lying on the hospital bed unmoving.
“Buffy?” Dawn called out quietly. Buffy opened her eyes and looked at Dawn and Giles.
“Hey guys.” Buffy smiled at them as they entered the room and sat next to her bed. “Can I leave now?”
“I think they need to run some tests first Buffy.” Giles said.
“But I haven’t studied yet.” Buffy mock pouted. “Besides, if they take anymore blood from me I’m gonna stake first, ask questions later.”
“Well it’s good to know your feeling better.” Giles chuckled.
“Yup, I’m 100% Buffy again. So can I go now?”
“No, I’m afraid not.” Giles smiled.
“Stupid doctors.” Buffy muttered.
“Well this stupid doctor has your test results Ms. Summers.” A female doctor pulled aside the cloth partition and stood beside Buffy’s bed, smiling good-naturedly.
“Dawn, you know better than to call the nice doctors names.” Buffy mock scolded.
“I’m letting you get away with that one only because your Hospital girl.” Dawn glared at her.
“I’m sorry, but I’m going to have to ask you both to step outside. Ms. Summer’s test results are private.” The doctor told Dawn and Giles.
“No, it’s okay. They can stay.” Buffy said.
“Are you sure Ms. Summers?” The doctor gave her a look.
“Yes.” Buffy said.
“Alright.” The doctor gave Buffy a small grin, “Ms. Summers, your pregnant.”