Chapter 9

I could fell the blood dripping down my arm and pooling on the seat of Xander's car. Light zoomed by as we drove our way down the desolate streets of Sunnydale. Angel was growling something about going faster and Toby was petting my hair out of my face.

"It won't hurt." Dru brought the knife up.

It was a dream. Just a dream. How. How had it actually happened?

The car jolted to a stop and I slid into the back of the front seats. The pain snapped me back for a second and then I lost consciousness.

"She lost a lot of blood. How long was she bleeding?" a male voice was standing at my side.

"I'm not sure exactly. I came into the kitchen and she was laying on the floor like that." Angel's voice drifted into my dizziness. "You'll have to ask her when she wakes up."

Footsteps receded from the room and my eyes fluttered open. The lights were harsh and I squinted against them.

"Ange?" Angel grasped my hand and I shifted to look at him.

"How long?" I gasped out. My throat was dry and scratchy. I tried to swallow but to no avail, my mouth was a desert.

"Only a few hours." His brow furrowed. "Everyone's here, and anxious to get you home." He looked down at me. "Ange…"

"I don't know." I whispered. "I don't know how it happened. One second I was dreaming and the next I was bleeding. Could I get some water?"

Angel brought me a plastic pink cup and I tipped it to my lips. The sweet cool liquid was almost miraculous.

"It has to be some kind of magic. A spell or something. Dreams don't just kill you." I reasoned.

"Let's just worry about getting you better and out of here." Angel tried to grin at me.

"When can I leave?"

"Let me go find someone."

Angel spun and slunk out of the small room. For a moment all I could hear was the beep of machinery and the wheezing of oxygen. And then my room as filled with people all with furrowed brows and tight lips.

Toby nudged his way to my side and kissed my forehead. "How are you feeling?"

"Like a pin cushion." I winced.

"But a very sassy pin cushion." Xander smiled.

"Yes, and lack the pins and fabric as well." Anya chimed in.

I just stared at her for a moment before cracking a smile.

"So, any word on when you can leave?" Willow said.

"Angel is finding out."

Cordy was on my other side, petting my hand with concern etched into her face. "What is this? Killer dreams?"

I shrugged, immediately regretting it due to the sharp pain in my shoulder.

"Well," Giles took his glassed off and wiped them with a handkerchief from his pocket. "We could definitely look into dream demons or spells…"

"It was my mother," I spat out. The room fell silent. "My mother stabbed me."

Giles cleared his throat. "Well Dru certainly likes her amulets. So we'll add that to the group."

Angel came back into the room with a doctor.

"I'm going to need to examine Angelica." The doctor stated in a dismissive way. I received smiles and sympathetic grunts of reassurance as the group left the room.

Once it was cleared the doctor sat on a stool to my left with his nose in his clip board. "Some support system you got there." He pointed out.

I nodded and winced.

"I have a few questions before we discuss being discharged." He finally looked up at me. "Is anyone trying to harm you?"

"I'm sorry?" I asked.

"With a wound like yours, our first instinct is to determine if it's abuse."

"Do people generally come in with shoulder wounds a lot?" I raised an eye brow at him.

The man sighed and rubbed his nose.

"No. No one's hurting me. Like my dad said. It was an accident."

He stared at me for what seemed like forever. He knew I was lying. People don't just accidently stab themselves in the shoulder.

"Why was there no knife in the wound when you got here? The first thing about impale wounds is not to take the object out." He furthered his questioning.

"I'd already pulled it out by the time my dad found me." Lie.

"And why were there no food particles in the wound. I take it you don't just go into the kitchen and play with knives." He was getting more and more suspicious.

"It was before I started cooking." Lie.

Again I was subjected to his scrutinizing glare. But if I wouldn't admit to anything he had no proof.

"Alright. I'll get the paper work to discharge you."

A few hours later I was back on the couch of Buffy's living room.

"Maybe we should head home. And figure this out back with our home field advantage." Fred was pacing from the living room to the hallway and back.

"I disagree. More man power could mean and answer sooner." Buffy stood, arms crossed like she was about to give some heroic speech and no one wanted to hear it. "Right Giles?"

"What? Oh-oh yes. Well I believe that the combined strengths may be a good advantage if we want to find an answer before something else happens." He played with the rims of his glasses.

"So what, she's not supposed to sleep until we figure out what's happening?" Toby asked.

"Well," Giles weighed options.

"Or we could just take shifts and if she screams wake her up." Gun suggested. The good thing about gun was that while everyone else was thinking of magical or supernatural ways to fix the problem, he always seemed to have the simplest answer.

"That works." Xander agreed.

"So what? We wait from Dru to come back for another stab at me?" Everyone paused in the tense air. "Pun not intended."

"We'll hit the books and hopefully find something soon." Giles was already turning to the glass door bookshelves that lines the back of Buffy's living room.

"Wonderful." I mumbled.

Welsey, Fred, and Willow joined Giles in the search for information while the non book worms of us sat and mindlessly watched infomercials.

This was going to be a long night.

So yeah. It's been a couple of years since I updated. And I'm not even sure if those of you who were reading are even still here. But here's an update. For new comers as well. Have fun. More to come soon. REVIEW!