Title: Afterwards
Summary: Set after final battle, in the hospital. B/S. No spoilers.
This is my first fic so please be kind and review.
They stood huddled together, the remaining few who could still stand. The busy ER rushed around them, people shouting, crying, sirens blaring in the distance. All of it seemed insignificant and pointless. Half their group was missing, the potentials who had stood no chance but had tried all the same, right up until their untimely deaths. Only Kennedy remained, her arm around a bruised and battered Willow whose nose was dripping with blood from the magic that had threatened to kill her. Tears tracks marked her face and she pulled Kennedy closer to her, as the memory of Anya's dead body flashed in her mind again. Xander and Dawn both lay in somewhere hospital beds or maybe on an operating table, their lives hanging in the balance. They did good. The First was gone. Maybe the powers will reward them, maybe not. Buffy stood in the middle of the group. Her clothes were covered in blood, only some of it was hers. Her face has hard but the cracks were beginning to show, she leaned slightly into Spike who stood at her side and he responded almost touching but not quite. If they were alone the barriers would have fallen.
A young nurse walked up to them. She was pretty and fresh faced. "I've got a room free now, you can wait in there, just follow me." They nodded and followed as she led them silently through the haphazard emergency room. The nurse led them to a cold looking room, her face was full of intrigue. "This is one of those unexplainable things that happens in Sunnydale isn't it?" The group looked up with weary eyes but no one voiced an answer. The nurse nodded and smiled slightly. "Well I guess I should thank you or something, you probably just saved the world". There was humour in her voice but it faded when she saw the looks on their faces. She breathed deep and passed it off in the way that Sunnydale residents had perfected. "I don't suppose you'll let me look at your wounds." Silence. "Guess not them, I'll set up a room with the first aid stuff so you can use it if you want". She almost wondered if they had heard her before the redheaded one gave her a grateful smile and a whispered thanks. The nurse nodded and retreated back into the bustling hospital, so alive in the face of so much death.
A little while later they were alone, patching each other's wounds in the little room the nurse had set up. The Slayer and her vampire. Words were not needed, gentle hands bandaged and cleaned the vast mass of wounds they'd accumulated and as they worked the walls began to crumble. She did not realise that she'd been crying until his hand came up to caress her cheek, wiping the tears away with his thumb. She leaned her head into his hand and met his eyes, communication was not needed but he said it anyway. "You did good Buffy, we won and they're going to be okay, they will" His voice was soft but full of conviction and it seemed to change something in her. She smiled and reached up to him. Her arm travelled round his neck pulling him down to her. He stiffened when their noses touched, eyes full of questions she could not answer yet and so she didn't. Their mouths met softly at first but then the need took over. They clung to each other desperately seeking comfort in touch driving away everything that was painful. It was too much, too fast and they drew back, hands still locked around each other's bodies. She could see the confusion in his eyes. Three rooms down her baby sister lay unconscious, somewhere else her best friend lay on an operating table. A mile away bodies of young girls littered the ground and a young, very old woman lay there too, her body still and broken. She could not say that they had won, it did not feel like it. Everything was wrong, it was wrong that she was here wrapped up in the arms of a killer, it was wrong that she was still alive when so many who could have done it better were not. She couldn't think so she didn't, she just laid her head on his shoulder and hugged him tightly, silently begging him to understand that she did not know how to answer his questions. He responded, murmuring her name into her hair followed by a string of comforting words, words that she did not hear but it didn't matter his voice was enough, the reassurance that she was not alone.
They stood huddled together, the remaining few who could still stand. The busy ER rushed around them, people shouting, crying, sirens blaring in the distance. All of it seemed insignificant and pointless. Half their group was missing, the potentials who had stood no chance but had tried all the same, right up until their untimely deaths. Only Kennedy remained, her arm around a bruised and battered Willow whose nose was dripping with blood from the magic that had threatened to kill her. Tears tracks marked her face and she pulled Kennedy closer to her, as the memory of Anya's dead body flashed in her mind again. Xander and Dawn both lay in somewhere hospital beds or maybe on an operating table, their lives hanging in the balance. They did good. The First was gone. Maybe the powers will reward them, maybe not. Buffy stood in the middle of the group. Her clothes were covered in blood, only some of it was hers. Her face has hard but the cracks were beginning to show, she leaned slightly into Spike who stood at her side and he responded almost touching but not quite. If they were alone the barriers would have fallen.
A young nurse walked up to them. She was pretty and fresh faced. "I've got a room free now, you can wait in there, just follow me." They nodded and followed as she led them silently through the haphazard emergency room. The nurse led them to a cold looking room, her face was full of intrigue. "This is one of those unexplainable things that happens in Sunnydale isn't it?" The group looked up with weary eyes but no one voiced an answer. The nurse nodded and smiled slightly. "Well I guess I should thank you or something, you probably just saved the world". There was humour in her voice but it faded when she saw the looks on their faces. She breathed deep and passed it off in the way that Sunnydale residents had perfected. "I don't suppose you'll let me look at your wounds." Silence. "Guess not them, I'll set up a room with the first aid stuff so you can use it if you want". She almost wondered if they had heard her before the redheaded one gave her a grateful smile and a whispered thanks. The nurse nodded and retreated back into the bustling hospital, so alive in the face of so much death.
A little while later they were alone, patching each other's wounds in the little room the nurse had set up. The Slayer and her vampire. Words were not needed, gentle hands bandaged and cleaned the vast mass of wounds they'd accumulated and as they worked the walls began to crumble. She did not realise that she'd been crying until his hand came up to caress her cheek, wiping the tears away with his thumb. She leaned her head into his hand and met his eyes, communication was not needed but he said it anyway. "You did good Buffy, we won and they're going to be okay, they will" His voice was soft but full of conviction and it seemed to change something in her. She smiled and reached up to him. Her arm travelled round his neck pulling him down to her. He stiffened when their noses touched, eyes full of questions she could not answer yet and so she didn't. Their mouths met softly at first but then the need took over. They clung to each other desperately seeking comfort in touch driving away everything that was painful. It was too much, too fast and they drew back, hands still locked around each other's bodies. She could see the confusion in his eyes. Three rooms down her baby sister lay unconscious, somewhere else her best friend lay on an operating table. A mile away bodies of young girls littered the ground and a young, very old woman lay there too, her body still and broken. She could not say that they had won, it did not feel like it. Everything was wrong, it was wrong that she was here wrapped up in the arms of a killer, it was wrong that she was still alive when so many who could have done it better were not. She couldn't think so she didn't, she just laid her head on his shoulder and hugged him tightly, silently begging him to understand that she did not know how to answer his questions. He responded, murmuring her name into her hair followed by a string of comforting words, words that she did not hear but it didn't matter his voice was enough, the reassurance that she was not alone.