Title: Comatose (Part 2)
Author: Mosquito
Note: Sorry it took me so long to post. I promise never to keep you hanging within a story again!
"What do you mean I wait?"
"Exactly what I said, Snugglepuss, There's nothing you can do right now. Especially turn her. Something's going to happen down the line and without Willow we'll all be doomed."
Spike thought back to Lorne's words. Yet, a month had passed and still nothing had changed. No longer allowed to say in the hospital, Spice was forced to leave after the first week. Now, sticking to the visiting hours, he turned back to work in order to keep feeling the loss.
He became easily irritated and grouchy, he yelled and drank too much. He'd become impossible to live with and Casey was starting to fear him. She refused to be home unless Ronan was, and on more than one occasion had decided to stay with friends.
Spike didn't notice any of this, though. Hes happiest moments were while he was asleep, dreaming of his red-head by his side. However, when day ended and he woke, his hear would rip once again with unbearable loss and he would be back to his inconsiderate self. He just missed Willow that much.
Walking into the long-term patients ward he immediately headed for Willow's room. Opening the door, he smiled when he saw her laying there. Most of the wiring was gone, but she still had an IV attached to her arm and a tube through her nose.
"Hello luv. How's everything going today? You look as beautiful as ever." Standing next to her he bent down and kissed her forehead. "Work was a bitch. Angel's got the Prince's party tomorrow and I'm hoping that it goes off without a hitch. I really need something good to happen now. Giles still doesn't know what the big evil is, but he wont stop looking. I really miss you here with me, luv. I miss holding you, kissing you, loving you, waking up next to you, or the sheets smelling of you when you've left for class."
"I'm not very good at being patient," he took her hand and raised it to his lips, "but I'm trying. Then placing it against his cheek he tried to image in being there under its own power. Laying it back down next to her, he entwined their fingers.
"I hope you had a good time with Kiara yesterday before she left. She told me she'd come back sometime when her mummy was well, and that she'd bring Cole for you to get to know. Bloody hell, can you imagine me living in the same house as that wanker? I'd rather be re-ensouled like my poncy sire than suffer living with that sod. He's so boring and serious and... he's sodding boring, that's what he is! Before I know it he'll be telling Kiara to stop keeping in touch with me because he disapproves of my method of feeding. Blomin' ponce. If he thinks he's going to be welcome in my house, he's got another thing coming.
"Anyway, enough about Cole. What would you like to hear tonight? I didn't really listen to anything in particular, so we're going to have to pick it on our own. Any requests? How about a little Franky? You know, I was listening to that online radio you set up for me, luv, and they started playing one of Franky's songs, but it isn't his voice, so I look at what's playing and it's this bloke: Robbie Williams. Did a good job of it too, which was not what I had expected. How many people can even level with Franky?" Spike knew exactly what Willow's reaction would have been and answered: "Yes, luv, I know you think I'm the best, but luv, truly, who's better than Sinatra? This young pup came close. Anyway, how about Fly Right?
The buzzard took the Monkey for a ride in the air
The monkey thought that everything was on the square
The buzzard tried to throw the monkey off his back
The monkey held on tight and said: Wow listen Jack!
Straighten up and fly right,
Straighten up and stay tight
Straighten up and fly right,
Cool down papa don't you blow your top
The buzzard told the monkey: "You are choking me
Release your hold and I will set you free."
The monkey looked the buzzard right dead in the eye,
He said: "Your story's so touching but it sounds just like a lie."
Straighten up and fly right,
Straighten up and stay tight
Straighten up and fly right,
Cool down papa don't you blow your top.
"I hadn't liked that one too much until I heard that Robbie Bloke sing it, but I know how it's one of your favorites. Cole told me that Williams is also a hell of an entertainer too, maybe we'll go to one of his concerts when you're feeling better, Red." He sighed and looked at the clock. "I have to head out soon. I told everyone that he'd be back." He stood up and leaned over to give her a kiss. "Come back to me, Darling. Wake up please."
Willow cried at Spike's words. How she wished that she could. Wiping her tears she took a deep breath.
"Willow?" She turned to the voice behind her.
"Yes, Roddick?"
"Let's get back to your lessons. The faster you learn, the faster you can go back." He moved towards her, "now that you can make things teleport, I want you to try to make an item from your imagination come forward. I want you to think of something you know very well. An object. Concentrate on what it looks like, what it's made out of and how it feels- it's exact texture. Good. Now, I want you to hold out your hand, open your eyes and imagine that its right in front of you, in your palm."
Willow opened her eyes and with moments conjured the picture frame she'd been thinking of. She smiled as she looked at the picture of Buffy, Xander and herself. How she missed those days.
"Very good, Willow. Now try and touch it." Willow brought up her other hand, but her fingers went righ through the object. Perplexed she looked up at Roddick and waited for an explanation.
"That's because it's just an image. A mirage if you will. When you do this later, when you're awake, you'll need to concentrate harder to give it form. Moving on, now that you've learned to conjure things up, you need to learn how to send them back. The trick is to know where you're sending it to. If it's something you took from somewhere, simply think of the location and concentrate on sending it back. However, if it was an object you made up, you'll need a spell to uncreate it. Something such as:
"From thought you were sprung,
From ideas your existence begun,
Return to whence you came,
To nothingness, I claim,
So mote it be.
"Let me give you an example." Willow watched as he closed his eyes and conjured a beautiful iris. "Now, I could send it somewhere, but for this exercise I'll uncreate it." She watched him say the spell and then the iris was once again gone. "You give it a try."
"Okay." Willow pictured something abstract in her mind. She wanted something so simple and plain that it could be thought of quickly. Seconds later she held a stick figure in her hand. Roddick laughed and then old her to uncreate it. And with the same speed that it appeared it was gone.
"Very nice, Willow, you're coming along nicely. A couple more days, I promise you. Then you can go home. Now we're going to move on to releasing and taking energy-"
Willow sighed, closed her eyes and listened. Just a few more days and she could go back to Spike. She wanted to hold him and be held- to feel him making love to her. Pushing him out of her mind she turned to her guide, "sorry, I missed that, could you repeat it again?"
"What?"
"All of it. I wasn't paying attention."
Roddick released a bust of air.
"Why couldn't I do this while I was asleep," Willow asked. She'd asked it before, time and time again she'd get the same answer:
"Because it takes a lot of effort and you'll be too exhausted from the day to continue your magick studies. Just a couple more days, Willow and I promise you can go back, okay?"
"Okay." She sighed. 'Focus Willow, the faster that you get this done the faster it's done.' Pep-talk done, she turned to him with her resolve face. "Okay, let's do this."
His patience was wearing thin. One more thing and he might well snap. First, his car hadn't started, which head meant that he'd had to wait until dark in order to go to work, so he'd paced the house looking for something to do. At four-thirty Casey had come home. Spike had accidentally blown up at her when she'd tried to make small-talk, which had reduced her to tears and caused her to lock herself up in her room. Feeling bad, Spike had tried to coax her out and when he finally realized that the door was open he'd gone in to find an empty room and an open window. Realizing that Casey had left, Spike had gotten really angry for feeling stupid enough for standing outside trying to coax her in the first place.
When the sun had finally gone down and Spike had gone to work, he'd found fault with everything and everyone: the barman, the bouncer, Cole- no one was left unscathed. It wasn't until he'd attempted to try and yell at Anya and Faith that the two stopped him in his tracks and put him in his place.
"Well, if you feel that we're doing such a bad job, you can have them back. Don't think that Cole will do them either, because he's a hare's breath away from quitting himself," Faith said. "Dude, you have got to lighten up. At the rate you're going, you're gonna have an aneurism or something."
"Vampires don't have aneurysms, Faith," Anya said.
"Well, you know, whatever."
"Anyway, that isn't the point, Spike." Anya said looking at the vampire, realizing that he looked as if he were out for blood.
"What is the soddin' point. Get to it sometime this bloody century," he growled back.
"First of all, you're going to live forever, and secondly, what about Willow?"
"What about her?" his voice got more curt.
"What do you think she'd say if she saw you like this? Do you think she'd be pleased?"
"Well, she's not here, is she?" He was going to leave the room but Anya's voice stopped him.
"But what about when she wakes up?"
"Who said she's going to" His voice was hurt, sad and angry all at once. Without turning to look at them he'd left, leaving his bookkeeper and buyer in his wake.
Once in his office he slammed the door and hurled himself into the chair behind the desk. Picking up random pieces of paper he became more irritated when he couldn't seem to focus on what was in front of him. So much so, that when the phone rant he picked it up with an irate: "What?!"
There was a pause, and then he heard the deep voice on the other end. "If this is how you pick up the phone, William, I'm going to have to come there and discipline you."
"What do you want, Angelus?"
"I want to know why I've gotten eleven phone calls today telling me that you've become a right grumpy, mean, aggravating, degrading, bastard? Care to comment?"
"Piss off," was Spike's only reply.
"Well, you see, I would, but I came all this way, and I will punish you to get my answer." The door to the office swung open, with Angel walking in.
"Sod off." Spike said putting down the phone.
"We're definitely going to have to work on your communication skills." Then before Spike realized it, Angel pulled out a small pistol and shot him. Looking down at his stomach he saw the tranquilizer jutting out.
"Wha-" he tried to speak and his sight blurred. Then everything turned to black as he fell to the floor.
Spike woke up groggy and sporting a headache. He tried to lift his hands and realized that he was handcuffed to the ceiling. 'Bloody hell,' he thought, As his eyes adjusted to the room he noticed he was in the mansion. Seeing the library around him gave him some hope that he would come out of this still undead.
"I see you're awake, William." Spike's eyes shot to the door, where he saw Angel standing.
"Let me down, you sod." He responded with a growl.
"Hmm, let's see... no. You've obviously lost your way, so we're gonna see if we can find it again."
"Shut your gob, Angelus. I'm not one of your stupid, witless victims that you're about to-" His eyes came wide realizing what was on the verge of happening.
"Torture?" Angel smirked. "Ah, me boy, we're going to have fun."
Spike followed Angel's movements across the room. Then he heard the sound of wheels as his grandsire pukked a cart with appliences. "Don't worry," Angel said, "You'll feel much better when I'm done with you."
Through the pain, Spike managed to let go of his anger. He realized just how much he'd been carrying. After what seemed like forever Angel stopped and let him down, placing him on a bed. "Try and sleep Spike. I'll have some blood for you when you wake. In the meantime-" Angel crawled in next to Spike and bit into his wrist. When the blood began to flow he kept it above Spike's mouth in order to allow Spike to suckle. Minutes later he took it back.
"Thank you Angel," Spike said.
"You're welcome, Spike. Sleep now." Angel said, but Spike had already nodded off.
"I concentrate and say what?" Willow asked. They'd been working on transfiguration for the last couple of hours and she'd come to the point of transfiguring herself.
"Rasamorphas."
"But that's what I had to say to transfigure someone else."
"No," Riddick said, "That's Rasamorphos. Hear the difference? Good, now you try."
Willow closed her eyes and concentrated on what she was supposed to be. "Rasamorphas!" she said with conviction as soon as she had the perfect picture in her mind. She opened her eyes to see Roddick smile. She looked down at her hands and saw the thick man's hands there,
Roddick produced a mirror from somewhere and offered it to her. Taking the mirror she looked and saw Xander looking back at her. She laughed at the sight and then realizing that she still had her own voice, found it even funnier. 'Spike would find this hilarious.'
"Now Willow," Roddick began once she had turned herself back to normal. "I mist warn you. Never ever change yourself into an inanimate object. Only people or animals. You may not be able to change yourself back. Also, inanimate objects that you turn into people or animals will still be inanimate. Do you understand?"
"Yup."
"Good, now we can work on partial transfiguration, for example, invisibility, or clothing. For invisibility I advice that you be cautious in using. If used too often you may have a very hard time turning back into being visible. To do this you say Rasamorphos, but when you're concentrating you imagine yourself becoming invisible. Once you're completely gone then say the word. As for clothing, you imagine yourself wearing something and then say Rasamorphas."
They spent some time on the two options and then allowed for Willow to rest a little while.
"Can I see Spike?" Willow asked.
"Not at the moment," the all-knowing Roddick said, "how about Xander?"
Willow looked at him oddly but agreed. Closing her eyes, she felt Roddick put his hand on her head and instantly she saw Xander in her mind.
He was in his basement looking at photos on his bed. In his hands he held two photos. The first was a picture of the two of them with Jesse and the second was of the two of them with Buffy. To Willow both pictures seemed to have been taken a lifetime ago. She watched as he placed the two down and picked up a third. Willow smiled when she saw his particular picture. We're it anyone outside of her circle of friends and family, it would have looked ridiculous.
In it, there were two chairs, one was empty and the other had Xander sitting in it, with Anya on his lap. Casey sat on an arm of Xander's chair with her hand over her stomach with her head tilted at an odd angle. Willow sat hovering in the empty chair looking up at what seemed to be nothing, to the right and behind the chair, smiling. Giles stood to the left of her with a hand resting on air.
The picture had been taken in London during Christmas by Olivia, who was now Giles' wife. Willow had another copy at home which included the three vampires: Spike with Willow on his lap, Angel standing behind them to the right, and Ronan with his arms around Casey. The drawing was phenomenal but even so anyone with the picture automatically knew who was where.
Xander sighed and Willow saw him hold out another picture: the two of them at school playing in the sandbox. This was definitely a favorite, as the corners were ruffled. "Oh, Willow, I hope you're okay. Come back to us soon. Especially before Spike goes crazy and make us nuts. I miss you too."
Tears stramed down her eyes and the image of Xander left her as Roddick removed his hand. Willow looked up at her mentor, "I can go home soon, right?"
"Absolutely. Come on, I have just a couple more things to show you. Then you can go."
"Okay," she said pulling strength together, "what now?"
"Now, we move onto big Magicks."
Willow's eyes popped open: "You mean..."
"Yes. I need you to stop time."
Spike looked over at the clock on the nightstand: 16:42. It was still light outside and he hadn't had any decent sleep. His dreams were plagued by his redhead. Over his mind replayed a scene he never saw- Willow's car accident. He was frozen to his spot, unable to help her move.
With a sigh of defeat Spike decided that he should probably get out of bed. He wouldn't get any sleep anyway. Everything around him reminded him of her. "Oh, Willow, I wish you were home." He said to no one. Pulling the pillow out from under him he put it to his face hoping to smell Willow, but her fragrance was no longer discernible.
Slowly he got himself up and sat the edge of the bed. He rubbed his face in an attempt to wake up and then began stretching. It was while turning to stretch his head that Willow's Book of Shadows caught his eye. Spike reached over an opened it. He breezed through it until a morning prayer that Willow normally recited caught his eye. Tracing his fingers over the words he familiarized himself with the words and began to speak it aloud.
O gracious Goddess
O gracious God
Lend me health, strength and love
During this day
Assist me with the chalanges ahead
Share your diving wisdom
Teach me to respect all things
Remind me that the greatest power of all is love.
Blessed be.
On some sort of level, Spike knew that his prayer had been heard and with a breath of calmness he go up to start his day.
Every evening started that way. It wasn't until he got to the club that started to go south. In the beginning it was all the looks of pity. After a while everyone began to get on his nerves. Things weren't happening fast enough and Spike was getting tired and restless. If it wasn't for Willow, he'd have gone back to his other club in England. He couldn't leave with her like that, though.
Willow had been in a coma for over two months now and Spike was starting to lose hope. The dreams he had at night only made the situation worse, as he'd wake up blissful and reality would sink in. However, just as he was stepping out the shower, his phone rang.
"'lo?"
"Mister Thropford? This is Nurse Karen. I wanted to tell you that Missus Thropford just woke up and is asking for you."
He was stunned.
"Mister Thropford? Can you hear me?"
"Yes," a breathy soft voice answered.
"Missus Thropford is asking for you."
He snapped out of his daze. "I'll be right there. Tell her i'm coming."
"Yes, Sir."
Spike hung up the phone and grabbed his clothes. He had barely put on his shoes and he was in the Desoto heading for the hospital.
The sun having just set allowed him to park in the first spot he found and he ran into the building. Sprinting past the reception he pushed the elevator button. The wait proved too long and in a flash he was climbing the stairs. Skipping steps he came to the correct floor and on a dead run made his way to Willow's room. The door was wide open and quietly stepping in encountered a groggy Willow. He went to sit next to her and held her hand.
"Spike?"
"Right here, Luv." His anxious voice voice replied.
"I missed you."
"Oh, luv, I missed you too."
"I'm gonna go back to sleep, okay?"
"Spike was tempted to tell her not to, scared that he'd close her eye again but instead said: "Of course, you go right ahead. Rest, so we can get you home."
"Stay with me?" Her voice was small.
"Always, Willow. Always."
When she'd fallen asleep, Spike reached over to the phone on the nightstand and dialed Ronan's cell.
"Hello?"
"It's me. Willow's awake. I need you to do a couple things for me. First of all, call the club and tell them I wont be in for a couple of days. I need you to sit down with the slayer and Anya- I was supposed to meet with them tomorrow regarding budgeting. Also, I need Casey to pack some things for Willow."
"No problem, Spike." Ronan said and the two of them hung up.
Spike sat back in his char and looked at Willow: her even breathing giving him cause ot smile. He placed his hand on her stomach and watched it go up and down.
"Thank you," he whispered under his breath, "thank you for giving her back to me."
End
(TBC in Part 11: A Lesson in Vampires and Mating)
