Bringing Out the Dead
The next night, Dawn rallied her Bizzaro Scoobies and they decided to take a trip down to the hospital. It turned out that Davis was actually quite adept at hot wiring cars and while Dawn, Spike, Nell, Roman and a very reluctant Ryan went to investigate, Davis was sent to locate a possible get away vehicle. No one had a real plan, and with her current company, she figured things could get real bad real quick.
"So what are we going to do?" Ryan asked as they stood outside the entrance of the hospital. "Are we just gonna walk in and poke around?"
"You can't just poke around a hospital, dip shit," Nell snapped. The fasting was taking a toll on the vampire's spirits, and Dawn worried how much longer they could hold out before they did something rash. "If you could, every junkie on the street would raid this place like a kitchen pantry."
"All right," Ryan seethed, restraining herself only out of her fear of Spike. "Then what?"
"Um…I have an idea," Dawn said. "Roman, do you mind if I borrow your pocket knife?"
Roman looked at her quizzically and handed it over. "Thanks," she said casually, and then whirled around and slashed Spike right across the belly.
"OW!!!!!!! SHIT FUCKING COCK SUCKER!!!!!" Spike yelled out every profanity that came to mind as he grabbed his stomach and slumped to the floor.
Dawn handed the knife back to very stunned Roman. "Now we have a patient." She said.
Nell shook her head in amazement. "You are hardcore, girl."
"She's hardcore!?!?! I'm practically cut in two!!!"
Ryan just had her hand over her mouth, not knowing whether to laugh, cry or hurl.
"Yes, and if you took it like a man instead of whining about it then you be hardcore as well," Nell reasoned. Spike looked as though he might stand up and hit the girl but Roman piped up before a fight could break out
"Well, come on," Roman said, shaking his head. "Let's get him off the pavement before we attract the cops. For a dead guy you sure bleed an awful lot."
"Terribly sorry," Spike mumbled as his crew hoisted him off the sidewalk. "Why am I always volunteered for this shit?"
"Because," Dawn explained. "If I had done that to anyone else here they would have turned right around and killed me."
"No doubt," Nell agreed.
Spike sighed. "Well, can you give me some warning next time? And you owe me 22 bucks for this T-shirt."
They caused quite a scene when they carried a profusely bleeding Spike into the emergency room. The pain and aggravation he felt a few moments earlier seemed to have dissolved into masochistic glee, as he gave in a performance worthy of an Oscar. "Don't let them take the leg!" he would howl. "Tell the boys from the 36th that I've gone home to momma!"
Ryan might have found the time to be embarrassed if she wasn't handed a gigantic stack of insurance forms. "You'll need to fill these out," a nurse informed her.
She shot a panicked look at Dawn. "Just fill out anything," Dawn whispered. "It's not like he's on record anywhere."
"Insurance fraud?" Ryan shook her head. "Is there any law we haven't broken tonight?"
But she was grateful for the distraction as she made herself comfortable in the waiting room. This slayer shit was really too much. It also seemed terribly unfair. What did she ever do to deserve this? "Previous or Known Health Conditions," Ryan read aloud. She snickered slightly to herself as she scrawled "Erectile Dysfunction" in large letters across the sheet. Well, she supposed there were some perks to the job.
"Shit," Roman observed through the window of the OR. "Looks like they figured out he's dead."
"Well, I should hope so," Dawn mused. "While they're scratching their heads over that we should split up."
"What are we looking for exactly?" Roman asked.
"Anything that you could use to infect people if you wanted to. Grab blood transfusions, syringes, vaccines….whatever. I know someone who might be able to analyze it for us…hopefully," Dawn said.
Roman and Nell nodded. "Break."
Nell was wishing she never dyed her hair blue. It made her a little too conspicuous for taste at this point in time. Thank God she was small. She noticed an orderly emerge from a room carrying a bag of blood and she dove behind a catering cart. She nabbed a container of Kozy Shack pudding from one of the trays and slid it across the floor, creating a makeshift doorstop. The orderly didn't notice. When he was gone, she darted out from behind her hiding place and into the room, which was actually a walk in refrigerator. She slammed the door behind her and took in a sharp breath at what she saw. She was almost literally a kid in a candy store. An entire room stocked with neatly labeled bags of fresh blood…she had wondered why she hadn't thought of this before. She grabbed one bag off the shelf and was about to leave when she got a whiff of it. It was too much. She needed blood. She needed it. She tore the top of the bag so fast she barely even realized what she was doing. What if this stuff is tainted? She thought. But what if it wasn't? She sighed and dipped her fingertip on the surface of the liquid. She dotted it on her tongue. Didn't taste strange. It smelled normal. God…she really wanted it. After a bit, instinct kicked in and she found herself gulping at the bag hungrily. She paused after she was finished, terrified of what she had just done. But she felt OK. Nothing strange was going on. She shook her head and hoped for the best as she grabbed another bag and darted out of the room.
Spike was about to get his own press release. "I don't understand this," the doctors kept saying. "Not only is he by almost all legal counts dead, but he seems to have incredible regenerative powers."
They started to get more and more excited as the reality of what they had hit them. They were going to be quite famous. They might even win a Nobel Prize for a discovery such as this. Spike was beginning to get a little uneasy. It was fun at first and he did enjoy the attention. But he would have to leave at some point and then what were they going to do? And he hadn't seen one of his friends poke their head through the OR window in some time. No sooner than he had the thought, he saw someone's hand gesturing through the window. One of the lesser nurses opened the door. "This is restricted," she said shortly. "Interns aren't allowed in here at this time."
"I understand, but from what I've been hearing this same sort of thing happened in Holy Name in Cali. I was there. I'm just curious to see if it's the same thing."
"I seriously doubt that," a doctor huffed to the unseen intern. "This is completely unprecedented…"
"Let me guess," the intern cut him off. "No pulse, no heartbeat and incredibly low body temperature yet there is the presence of blood and the patient seems to have some sort of accelerated healing capabilities."
If Spike's heart did register on the EKG, the thing would be spiking off the charts. The doctor seemed to pause for a second, then reluctantly let the intern into the room. And at once, both parties' worst fears were realized. The intern was none other than Riley Finn. They said nothing for a second, just staring at each other in a sort of dull shock , though neither could honestly claim to be surprised by the other's presence. Finally, Spike came to his senses and leapt from the slab, plucking various needles and suction cups from his body as the small arsenal of medical equipment bleeped wildly. He slammed through the swinging doors as he heard at least 3 people cry "After him!"
Spike ran as fast as he could in the direction of the waiting room, hoping to God Davis managed to get a car for them. On his way he crashed into a very guilty looking Nell. "What the hell?" she sputtered.
"Just run!" Spike shouted.
Nell turned and saw a large group of people screaming and rushing towards them. The jig was obviously up. The two of them kept running towards the waiting room and saw Roman and Dawn bending over the Slayerette, who seemed to be filling out some forms. She was about to write that Spike had a problem with frequent nocturnal emissions when Spike grabbed her by the arm. "Must leave now," he shouted mainly at Dawn, who made the mistake of looking up.
She made a choked, surprised sound in her throat when she saw Riley leading the pack, and Riley skidded to a stop. "Dawn?" he asked as the small army of hospital employees crashed into a pile up behind him.
She quite literally froze in place, causing Spike to grab her around the waist and practically carry her out of the building.
Riley panicked. Spike just kidnapped Dawn! Ack! What was it suddenly 1999? Was he in some sort of time warp? What the hell was going on?
He shook his head and started his pursuit again. Meanwhile, Roman had spotted Davis in a station wagon across the parking lot. "Thank God he's good for something," he muttered as they all bolted towards the car. Nell yanked the car door open and Spike practically threw all three ladies in the back seat.
"Davis, out," Roman instructed.
"Why, man? I wanna drive!"
Roman yanked him out of the drivers seat as Spike assumed shot gun. Dejected, Davis scrambled into the already crammed back seat and sailed over the bench into the trunk. It was then that he noticed the large pack of pursuers. "Dammit. I always miss out on the cool shit," he lamented as Roman slammed on the gas. "And I wanted to drive!"
"Davis, we can't have you being distracted by bugs and your own nose again," Roman explained as he peeled out of the parking lot.
Spike checked out the rear view window and noticed Riley leaping into a vehicle of his own.
"Jesus, God, no," Ryan muttered with a shaking voice. "A fucking car chase now? Is that what's about to happen?"
It certainly seemed that way as Riley donuted out of his space and began to zoom after them. "What does he think he's going to do? Who is that guy?" Nell asked.
"I ain't gonna stick around and find out," Roman remarked as he took a turn practically on two wheels.
Riley certainly seemed to be gaining ground. Dawn slunk down in her seat. She could not believe how low her life had sunk in such a short amount of time.
"You gotta turn a lot, man!" Davis suggested from the trunk. "You know, confuse him!"
In a totally unprecedented event, Roman heeded Davis' advice and took a sharp right and then a very illegal left, much to the chagrin of on coming traffic. He yanked the wheel around to make another turn into a less busy street when he slammed point blank into a pedestrian. Both Ryan and Dawn screamed as the body slammed up against the glass and rolled onto the sidewalk next to them.
"Oh, my God," Ryan whispered. "I'm in Hell. I've died somehow and gone to Hell."
Roman slowed down a bit instinctually, and Dawn turned around to inspect what they had done. To her great surprise and delight, the woman groaned and staggered to her feet. "Stop the car!!!!" Dawn shouted, banging on the window.
"Stop? We're in the middle of a car chase, girl!" Nell shrieked as she heard tires screeching a short distance behind them.
Spike cranked around in his seat to see what the hell got Dawn so upset. You know. Besides killing someone. "Well, I'll be damned," he mused. "its Buffy."
"Roman, you gotta pull back," Dawn begged, still banging on the window in an attempt to get Buffy's attention. "We just hit my sister."
Ryan snapped to attention and whipped around. "Wow. I didn't think we were built that tough."
"You'll get tougher," Dawn promised. "Roman, please."
Riley's car screeched around the corner. Spike grinned sadistically. "Go back, mate. You'll want to see this."
All three vampires looked at Spike as if he just grew a second head and then Roman backed up just as Riley's car moved forward. Each screeched to a halt inches from each other and a mere few feet in front of Buffy. Riley spotted her and his stomach practically leapt out of his throat. "Buffy…" he said.
She saw him too and gained an expression on her face that was almost entirely unreadable. It was one of relief, anger, shock, surprise and a good amount of horror. "Buffy!" Dawn shouted, sticking her head out the window.
Her eyes got even wider as she recognized first Dawn, then Ryan and last and most disturbing of all, Spike.
"Buff…I tried to write you," Riley said lamely as he scrambled out of the car. This now grabbed the attention of everyone on the scene as Buffy took a few awkward steps back. This was like 19 of her worst nightmares all rolled into one horrible moment. All she needed now was to make a speech at her high school graduation naked and she'd be set.
"Buffy, get in," Dawn said as police sirens began to scream in the distance.
"Don't listen to her, Buffy," Riley said. "Spike's got her brainwashed."
Spike let out a very rude and loud guffaw at that point. The sirens were getting much louder now. "Buffy, please," Riley repeated.
"Buff, make a decision. We can't hang around," Dawn implored.
"Yeah, seriously lady. We committed about 25 crimes tonight," Roman shouted from the front seat.
Buffy looked from Riley, to Dawn to Riley again. Her choice was to either get into a car with several bloodthirsty killers, or have a conversation with her ex boyfriend from college. She noticed a police car zoom around the bend. She sighed and leapt into the station wagon. "Drive!" she commanded as Roman quite agreeably slammed on the gas.
Riley stared after them with a perplexed expression. It seemed as if he was suddenly in some alternate universe dedicated only to making his life miserable. He raised his hands in the air apologetically as the police car pulled up behind him. It was going to be a long night.
The next night, Dawn rallied her Bizzaro Scoobies and they decided to take a trip down to the hospital. It turned out that Davis was actually quite adept at hot wiring cars and while Dawn, Spike, Nell, Roman and a very reluctant Ryan went to investigate, Davis was sent to locate a possible get away vehicle. No one had a real plan, and with her current company, she figured things could get real bad real quick.
"So what are we going to do?" Ryan asked as they stood outside the entrance of the hospital. "Are we just gonna walk in and poke around?"
"You can't just poke around a hospital, dip shit," Nell snapped. The fasting was taking a toll on the vampire's spirits, and Dawn worried how much longer they could hold out before they did something rash. "If you could, every junkie on the street would raid this place like a kitchen pantry."
"All right," Ryan seethed, restraining herself only out of her fear of Spike. "Then what?"
"Um…I have an idea," Dawn said. "Roman, do you mind if I borrow your pocket knife?"
Roman looked at her quizzically and handed it over. "Thanks," she said casually, and then whirled around and slashed Spike right across the belly.
"OW!!!!!!! SHIT FUCKING COCK SUCKER!!!!!" Spike yelled out every profanity that came to mind as he grabbed his stomach and slumped to the floor.
Dawn handed the knife back to very stunned Roman. "Now we have a patient." She said.
Nell shook her head in amazement. "You are hardcore, girl."
"She's hardcore!?!?! I'm practically cut in two!!!"
Ryan just had her hand over her mouth, not knowing whether to laugh, cry or hurl.
"Yes, and if you took it like a man instead of whining about it then you be hardcore as well," Nell reasoned. Spike looked as though he might stand up and hit the girl but Roman piped up before a fight could break out
"Well, come on," Roman said, shaking his head. "Let's get him off the pavement before we attract the cops. For a dead guy you sure bleed an awful lot."
"Terribly sorry," Spike mumbled as his crew hoisted him off the sidewalk. "Why am I always volunteered for this shit?"
"Because," Dawn explained. "If I had done that to anyone else here they would have turned right around and killed me."
"No doubt," Nell agreed.
Spike sighed. "Well, can you give me some warning next time? And you owe me 22 bucks for this T-shirt."
They caused quite a scene when they carried a profusely bleeding Spike into the emergency room. The pain and aggravation he felt a few moments earlier seemed to have dissolved into masochistic glee, as he gave in a performance worthy of an Oscar. "Don't let them take the leg!" he would howl. "Tell the boys from the 36th that I've gone home to momma!"
Ryan might have found the time to be embarrassed if she wasn't handed a gigantic stack of insurance forms. "You'll need to fill these out," a nurse informed her.
She shot a panicked look at Dawn. "Just fill out anything," Dawn whispered. "It's not like he's on record anywhere."
"Insurance fraud?" Ryan shook her head. "Is there any law we haven't broken tonight?"
But she was grateful for the distraction as she made herself comfortable in the waiting room. This slayer shit was really too much. It also seemed terribly unfair. What did she ever do to deserve this? "Previous or Known Health Conditions," Ryan read aloud. She snickered slightly to herself as she scrawled "Erectile Dysfunction" in large letters across the sheet. Well, she supposed there were some perks to the job.
"Shit," Roman observed through the window of the OR. "Looks like they figured out he's dead."
"Well, I should hope so," Dawn mused. "While they're scratching their heads over that we should split up."
"What are we looking for exactly?" Roman asked.
"Anything that you could use to infect people if you wanted to. Grab blood transfusions, syringes, vaccines….whatever. I know someone who might be able to analyze it for us…hopefully," Dawn said.
Roman and Nell nodded. "Break."
Nell was wishing she never dyed her hair blue. It made her a little too conspicuous for taste at this point in time. Thank God she was small. She noticed an orderly emerge from a room carrying a bag of blood and she dove behind a catering cart. She nabbed a container of Kozy Shack pudding from one of the trays and slid it across the floor, creating a makeshift doorstop. The orderly didn't notice. When he was gone, she darted out from behind her hiding place and into the room, which was actually a walk in refrigerator. She slammed the door behind her and took in a sharp breath at what she saw. She was almost literally a kid in a candy store. An entire room stocked with neatly labeled bags of fresh blood…she had wondered why she hadn't thought of this before. She grabbed one bag off the shelf and was about to leave when she got a whiff of it. It was too much. She needed blood. She needed it. She tore the top of the bag so fast she barely even realized what she was doing. What if this stuff is tainted? She thought. But what if it wasn't? She sighed and dipped her fingertip on the surface of the liquid. She dotted it on her tongue. Didn't taste strange. It smelled normal. God…she really wanted it. After a bit, instinct kicked in and she found herself gulping at the bag hungrily. She paused after she was finished, terrified of what she had just done. But she felt OK. Nothing strange was going on. She shook her head and hoped for the best as she grabbed another bag and darted out of the room.
Spike was about to get his own press release. "I don't understand this," the doctors kept saying. "Not only is he by almost all legal counts dead, but he seems to have incredible regenerative powers."
They started to get more and more excited as the reality of what they had hit them. They were going to be quite famous. They might even win a Nobel Prize for a discovery such as this. Spike was beginning to get a little uneasy. It was fun at first and he did enjoy the attention. But he would have to leave at some point and then what were they going to do? And he hadn't seen one of his friends poke their head through the OR window in some time. No sooner than he had the thought, he saw someone's hand gesturing through the window. One of the lesser nurses opened the door. "This is restricted," she said shortly. "Interns aren't allowed in here at this time."
"I understand, but from what I've been hearing this same sort of thing happened in Holy Name in Cali. I was there. I'm just curious to see if it's the same thing."
"I seriously doubt that," a doctor huffed to the unseen intern. "This is completely unprecedented…"
"Let me guess," the intern cut him off. "No pulse, no heartbeat and incredibly low body temperature yet there is the presence of blood and the patient seems to have some sort of accelerated healing capabilities."
If Spike's heart did register on the EKG, the thing would be spiking off the charts. The doctor seemed to pause for a second, then reluctantly let the intern into the room. And at once, both parties' worst fears were realized. The intern was none other than Riley Finn. They said nothing for a second, just staring at each other in a sort of dull shock , though neither could honestly claim to be surprised by the other's presence. Finally, Spike came to his senses and leapt from the slab, plucking various needles and suction cups from his body as the small arsenal of medical equipment bleeped wildly. He slammed through the swinging doors as he heard at least 3 people cry "After him!"
Spike ran as fast as he could in the direction of the waiting room, hoping to God Davis managed to get a car for them. On his way he crashed into a very guilty looking Nell. "What the hell?" she sputtered.
"Just run!" Spike shouted.
Nell turned and saw a large group of people screaming and rushing towards them. The jig was obviously up. The two of them kept running towards the waiting room and saw Roman and Dawn bending over the Slayerette, who seemed to be filling out some forms. She was about to write that Spike had a problem with frequent nocturnal emissions when Spike grabbed her by the arm. "Must leave now," he shouted mainly at Dawn, who made the mistake of looking up.
She made a choked, surprised sound in her throat when she saw Riley leading the pack, and Riley skidded to a stop. "Dawn?" he asked as the small army of hospital employees crashed into a pile up behind him.
She quite literally froze in place, causing Spike to grab her around the waist and practically carry her out of the building.
Riley panicked. Spike just kidnapped Dawn! Ack! What was it suddenly 1999? Was he in some sort of time warp? What the hell was going on?
He shook his head and started his pursuit again. Meanwhile, Roman had spotted Davis in a station wagon across the parking lot. "Thank God he's good for something," he muttered as they all bolted towards the car. Nell yanked the car door open and Spike practically threw all three ladies in the back seat.
"Davis, out," Roman instructed.
"Why, man? I wanna drive!"
Roman yanked him out of the drivers seat as Spike assumed shot gun. Dejected, Davis scrambled into the already crammed back seat and sailed over the bench into the trunk. It was then that he noticed the large pack of pursuers. "Dammit. I always miss out on the cool shit," he lamented as Roman slammed on the gas. "And I wanted to drive!"
"Davis, we can't have you being distracted by bugs and your own nose again," Roman explained as he peeled out of the parking lot.
Spike checked out the rear view window and noticed Riley leaping into a vehicle of his own.
"Jesus, God, no," Ryan muttered with a shaking voice. "A fucking car chase now? Is that what's about to happen?"
It certainly seemed that way as Riley donuted out of his space and began to zoom after them. "What does he think he's going to do? Who is that guy?" Nell asked.
"I ain't gonna stick around and find out," Roman remarked as he took a turn practically on two wheels.
Riley certainly seemed to be gaining ground. Dawn slunk down in her seat. She could not believe how low her life had sunk in such a short amount of time.
"You gotta turn a lot, man!" Davis suggested from the trunk. "You know, confuse him!"
In a totally unprecedented event, Roman heeded Davis' advice and took a sharp right and then a very illegal left, much to the chagrin of on coming traffic. He yanked the wheel around to make another turn into a less busy street when he slammed point blank into a pedestrian. Both Ryan and Dawn screamed as the body slammed up against the glass and rolled onto the sidewalk next to them.
"Oh, my God," Ryan whispered. "I'm in Hell. I've died somehow and gone to Hell."
Roman slowed down a bit instinctually, and Dawn turned around to inspect what they had done. To her great surprise and delight, the woman groaned and staggered to her feet. "Stop the car!!!!" Dawn shouted, banging on the window.
"Stop? We're in the middle of a car chase, girl!" Nell shrieked as she heard tires screeching a short distance behind them.
Spike cranked around in his seat to see what the hell got Dawn so upset. You know. Besides killing someone. "Well, I'll be damned," he mused. "its Buffy."
"Roman, you gotta pull back," Dawn begged, still banging on the window in an attempt to get Buffy's attention. "We just hit my sister."
Ryan snapped to attention and whipped around. "Wow. I didn't think we were built that tough."
"You'll get tougher," Dawn promised. "Roman, please."
Riley's car screeched around the corner. Spike grinned sadistically. "Go back, mate. You'll want to see this."
All three vampires looked at Spike as if he just grew a second head and then Roman backed up just as Riley's car moved forward. Each screeched to a halt inches from each other and a mere few feet in front of Buffy. Riley spotted her and his stomach practically leapt out of his throat. "Buffy…" he said.
She saw him too and gained an expression on her face that was almost entirely unreadable. It was one of relief, anger, shock, surprise and a good amount of horror. "Buffy!" Dawn shouted, sticking her head out the window.
Her eyes got even wider as she recognized first Dawn, then Ryan and last and most disturbing of all, Spike.
"Buff…I tried to write you," Riley said lamely as he scrambled out of the car. This now grabbed the attention of everyone on the scene as Buffy took a few awkward steps back. This was like 19 of her worst nightmares all rolled into one horrible moment. All she needed now was to make a speech at her high school graduation naked and she'd be set.
"Buffy, get in," Dawn said as police sirens began to scream in the distance.
"Don't listen to her, Buffy," Riley said. "Spike's got her brainwashed."
Spike let out a very rude and loud guffaw at that point. The sirens were getting much louder now. "Buffy, please," Riley repeated.
"Buff, make a decision. We can't hang around," Dawn implored.
"Yeah, seriously lady. We committed about 25 crimes tonight," Roman shouted from the front seat.
Buffy looked from Riley, to Dawn to Riley again. Her choice was to either get into a car with several bloodthirsty killers, or have a conversation with her ex boyfriend from college. She noticed a police car zoom around the bend. She sighed and leapt into the station wagon. "Drive!" she commanded as Roman quite agreeably slammed on the gas.
Riley stared after them with a perplexed expression. It seemed as if he was suddenly in some alternate universe dedicated only to making his life miserable. He raised his hands in the air apologetically as the police car pulled up behind him. It was going to be a long night.