Chapter7

"How about Chuck?" Lauren proposed.

"Chuck? You want to name our kitten Chuck?" Buffy scoffed as she dodged a swing from a vampire she was fighting. She backhand punched him and turned to check on Lauren who was kicked to the ground by another vampire. The younger girl rolled and got to her feet, dancing away from the snarling vampire as she met her mentor's laughing gaze.

"Ok fine, you come up with something better." Lauren challenged as the vampire she was fighting lunged at her. She dropped into a crouch and used the vampire's momentum against him to flip him over her back onto the ground. Before he could get back to his feet she plunged her stake into the vampire's chest at the same moment Buffy staked hers.

"Hmm how about Ash?" Buffy suggested as the two girls fell into step beside each other, resuming their patrol. Lauren thought it over for a second then shook her head in distaste. "I like Ash, its simple."

"It's boring you mean." Lauren joked and looked around the quiet graveyard for more vampires or demons. They trudged along, side by side, rejecting different names for their new pet. "Hey I got one," Lauren said as a name came to her mind. Buffy didn't hear her though, and Lauren followed Buffy's gaze to a young boy that had just run into the road chasing a basketball. Before Lauren had time to react Buffy ran across the graveyard and into the road, pushing the boy out of the path of an oncoming car and Lauren watched with horror as her friend was struck by the car.

The boy's mother ran out to pull the boy into her arms and Lauren dashed to Buffy's side. She bent down and brushed Buffy's hair from her face and felt her heart racing as her fingers came away bloody. Buffy had hit her head on the pavement when the car had collided and she was unconscious but alive. Lauren looked up to see the mother of the boy beside her, terrified. The driver of the car was standing a few feet away and Lauren yelled for him to call 911.

It seemed to take forever for the ambulances to get there and once they had, Lauren climbed into the back of the vehicle, her hand tightly gripped Buffy's own. When the paramedics asked if she was a family member she lied and told them Buffy was her sister, and they seemed to take that on faith. Lauren told them to take Buffy to Princeton Plainsboro Teaching Hospital and that her doctor was a Gregory House, they set to work on putting Buffy on an IV and taking her vitals.

Lauren reached into Buffy's pocket to remove her phone, then scrolled through the contacts for the person she needed to get a hold of. Willow and the gang could wait, she decided. She clicked send and waited impatiently as the phone connected.

"House? It's Lauren, there's been an accident. Meet me at the clinic, Buffy's been hurt." House didn't ask for details, merely hung up and Lauren gave a small relieved sigh that he would take care of her friend. Lauren brushed Buffy's hair back and eyed the monitor, murmuring reassurances to the blond Slayer.

When the ambulance arrived, Lauren hopped out and her anxious eyes met House's professional ones. He wasn't showing any emotion but she could see the strain and the worry as he looked her over. Lauren watched the medics roll Buffy into a room and growled at one who tried to get her to let go of Buffy's hand. House gruffly told the medic to go do something and he walked away, leaving Lauren still clutching Buffy's limp hand.

Finally the medics filed out and only Buffy, House and Lauren were left in her room, the machines beeping steadily. House watched Buffy's monitors and turned to Lauren with his usual brash manner. "What happened?"

"We were taking a walk, and debating what to name the kitten and there was a boy, he was in the road. What was he doing in the road? Where was his mother?" Lauren wasn't aware that she was rambling and House cleared his throat to get her back on track. "I told her I'd thought of one, but then she ran into the road to push the kid out of the way. There was a car coming toward him, I didn't even see it, why didn't I see it? The kid's fine but she got hit instead. God she was bleeding," Lauren looked dazedly down at her fingers that were covered with dried blood. Her hands were shaking and she tried to get her nerves to calm down but she couldn't. Buffy was so still, why was she not moving? Why wasn't she awake yet? She's a Slayer, the oldest living Slayer, why was she still unconscious?

Lauren was brought back to earth by House's rough voice and she mentally gave herself a shake. She looked over at him and he offered her a tight smile. "Does she have a doctor? One she sees regularly?" He repeated his question and Lauren flushed slightly.

"I um, I told them you're her doctor. She doesn't know anyone else and she hates doctors and hospitals. Ever since her mom..." Lauren trailed off as she remembered the sorrow on her friend's face when Joyce Summers was brought up. "Can't you do the doctor thing? I mean she knows you, she won't freak if it's you taking care of her."

House looked back at Buffy and debated the matter in his head. He didn't usually handle normal cases but Buffy was different. He wondered about why she hated doctors and that bit about her mother was interesting. If he was her doctor perhaps he'd be able to solve some of the questions about her that he still hadn't figured out. "I can do it. I'll need to know who her proxy is so I can get her medical records, do you know who that is?"

Lauren worried her lip, wondering if her proxy would be Dawn or Giles or possibly Willow. Maybe she should call Angel, she thought. Seeing her hesitation House nodded once and informed her to page him once she found out and after a fleeting glance at the prone girl upon the hospital bed, he limped out, leaning heavily on his cane. Lauren watched over Buffy for another few moments before reaching for the cell phone again.

It turned out that Angel knew who Buffy's proxy- which happened to be Giles- was and when Lauren told him what happened, Angel promised to be there by sundown the following day. She wasn't sure how that would blow over once Buffy woke but she figured they'd deal with that when it came up, and she dialed Giles' number next. She briefly explained what happened and Giles agreed to fax over Buffy's records for House's use. He also offered to fly out but Lauren persuaded him not to, that she'd call him as soon as Buffy woke. There was no doubt in her mind that Buffy would wake, she was a senior Slayer and her Slayer healing would fix everything. It was just a matter of when

As soon as she disconnected from Giles the phone started to ring, and Lauren saw that it was Faith, and she answered. She went through the whole scenario again with the other Slayer and Faith hung up saying she'd be there in Plainsboro by nightfall. Lauren had heard a lot about Faith in the time she'd become friends with Buffy and she knew arguing would be no use.

Lauren looked around and spotted one of the uncomfortable hospital chairs and pulled it up to Buffy's bed so she could sit. Buffy still had yet to wake or show any signs of consciousness but Lauren refused to believe that she wouldn't wake.

After an hour passed, the silence was starting to get to her and she switched on the TV in the corner of the room and smothered a yawn. She flipped through the channels until she found a movie that Buffy liked and settled into the chair to watch. She heard footsteps and looked at the doorway to see Chase walk inside. He didn't seem to notice her and went directly to Buffy's bed to flip through her chart.

Chase looked at the monitors and checked Buffy's pulse and eye response before noticing the tired girl seated at Buffy's side, their hands tightly clasped. She gave him a tired and very worried smile and he tried to give her a reassuring one but he couldn't quite manage it. She told him what happened and her eyes pleaded with him for confirmation that her friend would be okay and he tried to sooth her frayed nerves. He told her about statistics and that she was doing well and that they were pretty sure she'd make a full recovery but the words sounded hollow. The truth was that Buffy had hit her head and until she woke they couldn't be sure if the impact had caused brain damage. She also had a few cracked ribs from the car hitting her but those would heal considerably well on their own. It was a miracle she was even alive after getting hit by a car that size and at that speed but he wasn't about to admit that to Lauren.

He gently suggested that she go home and rest and offered to call her himself if Buffy woke and Lauren turned dead eyes back to Buffy. He informed her that House had received her medical records and that Buffy had the best doctor in New Jersey keeping an eye on her. He even tried to persuade her by saying that she would be no help if she passed out from exhaustion and that they'd need her help to get a full background the next day. Buffy's medical records were spotty at best because of Sunnydale's hospital being destroyed by the sinkhole that took out the rest of the town and they'd need further history about her health if they were to treat her effectively.

His last argument swayed Lauren to agree and it was when she remembered that not only would Faith be arriving the following day, but Angel was too. She knew she needed to be at her best to deal with the two in Buffy's state and for that she needed to rest. She nodded wearily and stood from the chair that creaked with the weight shift. She squeezed Buffy's hand and placed a kiss upon her brow before whispering she'd be back the next day. She felt Chase's hand on her shoulder as he walked her to the door and the gentle hug he gave her of comfort. Lauren looked at Buffy and then at Chase, an unspoken request in her eyes that he saw and agreed to with a slight smile. She walked out of the hospital and to the door, her arms hugging her small frame as she tried to wash the image of Buffy's body lying lifeless on the road, bathed in the car's headlights.