Part Two

Turning the handle slowly, Buffy entered Xander's hospital room. It had been difficult to convince Anya to leave, but the Doctors assured her, they would contact her if there was any change. So now almost six hours since Xander had been brought into the hospital, Buffy was left with the task of taking Dawn home. Quietly closing the door, Buffy turned and saw that Dawn had fallen asleep on Xander's bed, her head resting on the lower half of his chest. Buffy knew that school was already out of the question for Dawn today, but she still wanted to get her home so she could have at least a few hours of proper sleep.

Not that Dawn looked like she wanted to go home. In fact she looked down right comfortable, Buffy had to admit. Which only meant one thing. She was not going to be a happy girl when Buffy woke her in a few minutes.

"Dawn," Buffy lightly called to her, tapping Dawn on the shoulder at the same time. When there was no response from her sister, Buffy shook Dawn's shoulders a little harder.

"Wha..," Dawn groaned as her eyes opened. "Buffy!" she whined seeing who had woken her from her slumber.

"Comon, sleepy head, time to get going home."

Dawn was about to protest further when she easily read the look on Buffy's face. It said quite simply, 'Don't argue'. Resigned to leaving, Dawn yawned and got up.

When Dawn got up, Buffy noticed with some surprise that Dawn had been holding Xander's hand beneath her, while she slept. She was about to comment on it, when to her further surprise, when Dawn let go, Xander's hand moved, as if trying to find what it had suddenly lost.

"He moved," Dawn said excitedly. "Xander!" she called a little louder than Buffy thought was necessary.

"Dawn," Buffy cautioned. "He's still unconscious."

"No. He knows I'm here," Dawn replied grasping his hand again. "Come on, Xander," she urged.

"Dawn," Buffy said again, softer this time, part of her hoping that Dawn was right.

After a few seconds, when it became obvious Xander wasn't going to move again, any time soon, Buffy stepped over and put her arm around her sister and consoled her. "We'll come back after we've slept," she said gently.

"Okay," Dawn replied taking a last look and gently squeezing Xander's hand, before placing it back by Xander's side. Turning to Buffy she gave her a little smile, before following her big sister out the door.

******************

A little after seven a.m., while a nurse was checking his vital signs, Xander awoke. There was no great fanfare. He just opened his eyes and looked around, letting his eyes adjust to the light and after a few seconds, noticed the nurse who was peering down at him, looking quite happy with herself.

"Hi," he croaked out, the sound barley making it past his lips.

"Are you in any pain?" the nurse asked him, while taking his pulse.

Xander shook his head. "I'm in a hospital?" he asked, more to clarify it for himself then to get an actual answer.

"You don't remember what happened to you?" she asked.

Xander shook his head. Firstly he had learnt from past visits to the hospital it was best to be vague, and secondly, cause what he could tell the nurse, would no doubt send him to a padded cell quicker that he could finish his explanation.

"Well just rest here and I'll grab the Doctor," the nurse said as she exited the room.

Xander watched her leave and then took in the room that he had woken up in. He started shivering as he looked around frantically for something familiar. He wasn't cold. On the contrary the blankets he had over him kept him warm enough. He had an overwhelming feeling of helplessness. He couldn't remember how he got to the hospital, and although he realised what lead to his obvious collapse, he had to really concentrate to remember what year it was. And when he did, he got the strangest feeling it was in the past.

These were all feelings Xander did not enjoy having. He couldn't fight them, he couldn't even face them. He didn't even know what they meant.

*****************

At 9.00am Xander was about to try and sleep. He had finally gotten a few minutes to himself after the endless line of Doctors, that seemed to be taking an interest in his case, finally stopped coming. His eyes were about to shut, when through the door walked his fiancée, and by the look on her face when she saw that Xander had his eyes open, no-one had told her yet, that he had come out of his coma.

The most pleasant shock that Anya got, however turned to a slightly uncomfortable one for Xander when Anya yelped and virtually jumped on him in her excitement.

"Xander," she squealed, hugging him a little too hard.

"Oh Ahn, " Xander replied pulling back a little. "Still not feeling the best."

"Sorry," Anya replied looking a little hurt, but pulling back anyway.

Xander wanted to reach over and let her know it was okay, but he didn't have the energy to move. "It's okay. Feel free to hug, just softly,' Xander said trying his best to smile through the pain.

"And then we can have the soft sex," Anya added moving over to embrace Xander with a smile on her face.

Xander inwardly grimaced. Sex, soft or not, wasn't on his mind at that point in time. Xander himself would have taken more note of this monumentous occasion, if he hadn't been pre-occupied with more important things.

"Do you know what happened?" he asked.

"You don't remember?" she replied, moving her head up a little to look at his face.

Xander shook his head. "I expect I got knocked out after getting hit by whatever Krostoff used, but that's it."

"Buffy probably knows more," Anya said casually. "But you did disappear for a while."

"I disappeared," Xander said the words, as if trying to understand them. "For how long?" he enquired, this time addressing Anya.

"Only for a few minutes, but you re-appeared wearing different clothes and with a snazzy new hair cut," Anya replied, running her hands through Xander's head, as if nothing was wrong.

"Wha.." Xander said, not knowing exactly how to respond to that sort of news.

"It's no biggie," Anya replied. "You're back now. That's all that matters."

Xander heard her words, but didn't respond. All he could feel was the sense of overwhelming loss. Anya's words, delivered in her own unique way, did nothing to calm his inner self.

***************

It was only a few hours later, when Dawn awoke from her forced sleep. The first thing she did was to call the hospital. The result of which was a big squeal, and a very quick sprint up the stairs to Buffy's room, to tell her of Xander's recovery.

When Buffy awoke to the sound of a very excited teenage girl, she did not need any clues to realise that Xander had come out of his coma.

"He's okay?" Buffy asked with a huge smile on her face.

"Yeah. Anya is with him at the moment. She said he's a little out of it, but feeling okay," Dawn replied.

"Anya said that?" Buffy asked, not seeing Anya actually using those words.

"Well no," Dawn blushed, "she said something about soft sex soon, so I interpreted for you."

Buffy nodded, "you did well. Did she say if he remembered anything?"

"No," Dawn answered. She saw the look on her sisters face as she said that and it didn't add up. What did Xander have to remember?

"What aren't you telling me?" she asked.

"It's nothing really," Buffy replied trying to evade the question.

"Buffy!" Dawn protested.

Sometimes Dawn still got treated like a little kid and as far as she was concerned this was one of those occasions. "I think after what we've been through in the last year, I deserve the truth."

Buffy nodded. "You do, but we really have no answers as yet. We were sort of hoping that Xander would be able to fill in the blanks for us."

Now that Buffy had sowed the seeds of doubt in Dawn's mind, she remembered something that had startled her, at first, last night. "Did Xander get a haircut yesterday?" Having not seen him, since the night before his accident, it was conceivable.

"No,' Buffy responded putting paid to Dawn's logical train of thought quickly. "And that's just one of the weird things. He disappeared, then re-appeared a few minutes later with a new hairstyle and different clothes."

"How's that possible?" Dawn asked trying to get her head around it.

"We think that he went somewhere," Buffy responded not trying to be deliberately evasive, but it all theory at this point.

"Where?"

Buffy shrugged. "We don't know."

****************

Lying still on his hospital bed, staring at the back of his eyelids, Xander practiced the long tradition of resting his eyes, in the hope that it would remove some of the tension that seemed to be building with each passing moment. The knowledge that he knew nothing about what happened to him was just the icing on his own personal 'freaking out' cake. From what Anya told him, he had been gone for some time. At least in his own reality. For his friends it had only been a few minutes.

Not for the first time he thanked his Star Trek childhood for his understanding of such things.

His thoughts were interrupted by a knock at the door. Opening his eyes, and taking a moment to let them adjust to the artificial light shinning down from the fluorescent bulbs above him, he smiled warmly when he realised who it was.

"Xander!" Dawn called as she entered.

"Hey Dawn," Xander said just as Dawn's arms wrapped around him. "Hey hold on," Xander warned.

"Dawn!" Buffy called from the door. "Be careful."

"Sorry Xander," Dawn replied, her grin still plastered on her face.

When Xander looked into her face, he couldn't help but smile. "S'okay. It's good to see you too."

Xander patted the side of his bed, for Dawn to sit on, before answering. She leaned back against the backboard, part of her side resting against Xander's shoulder.

He was a little surprised when Buffy gave him a small kiss on his cheek. She then whispered in his ear, "Thanks."

Xander smiled and nodded, knowing exactly what she meant.

"Where's Anya?" Buffy asked, surprised not to see her at Xander's side.

"She's at Giles's," Xander responded.

Buffy was more than a little surprised at the absence of Anya. Xander's seemingly nonchalant response only added to her worry. "I'm sure Giles would give her the day off," she asked.

"He did, but I said it was okay for her to go. There isn't much that she could do around here."

Buffy was about to voice some of her concerns, but seeing that Xander had shrugged off the conversation and now was too busy laughing with Dawn, she let it go. Buffy had no idea what Xander had just been through, but she didn't want to impact on it.

"So, how are you feeling, Xan?"

"I'm okay. A little weak. Feeling, well... just weird."

Buffy frowned, not liking such an ambiguous answer.

"You have no memory of what happened?" Buffy continued.

Xander shook his head. "Until Anya mentioned it, I had no idea that there was something to remember." Xander looked from Buffy's face to Dawn's and then back to Buffy's. "Okay, so what's the sytch?"

"You were gone from only 5 minutes from here Xander, but we think you were somewhere else for a lot longer," Buffy answered.

"Yeah, Anya mentioned something like that. Any idea how long?" Xander asked, hoping that Buffy would be able to fill in some of the gaps.

Buffy shook her shoulders. "We don't know. We don't know where you went, but you seem to be physically okay, and since you had a new haircut, and clothes that looked newish, it obviously wasn't some sort of hell dimension, at least not one I've heard about."

Xander inwardly cursed. Buffy knew no real more than what Anya told him. And none of what Buffy had told him made the feelings in the back of his mind lessen.

"I wish I could tell you Buff, but I'm running on a blank slate," Xander replied letting some of his frustration out.

"I'm sorry, I'm not being more helpful," Buffy responded. "Maybe Giles has had better luck."

"Yeah maybe," Xander replied sounding more pessimistic, then he had planned.

Buffy's concern had only grown over the last few minutes. Xander's emotions had run the full gammont since she and Dawn had arrived. Looking at Dawn and him, casually joking and laughing Buffy would think everything was okay. It looked so much like how it had been since her return. But in the other times, when she asked him questions about his disappearance, she saw the hurt, despair and resignation in his mood.

Interrupting the talkative pair, she asked, "You be okay with Dawn for a while?"

"Yeah, of course," Xander replied throwing a grin towards Dawn, who had no complaints herself. "Why?"

"I'm just going to check in with Giles, see when he wants to come and see you," she answered, adding in her mind, 'and see if he can help you.'

"No probs, Buff." Xander responded with his usual trademark grin.

It was just another sign to Buffy things just weren't right. "I'll be back in a minute," she replied before turning and walking outside, closing the door behind her.

End Part Two