Chapter Nine – They Thought It Was All Over
"I love you. I have always loved."
"I know. Somehow I know."
"Well, do you love me? Do you?"
"Yes, yes of course I do. I love more than I have loved anyone else in the world."
"I have wanted to do this for so long. Buffy, will you marry me?"
"Yes, yes I will. Kiss me Xander! Xander! Xander!"
It was at this point that Xander opened his eyes. It took him a second to recognise where he was. Sofa, television, strange décor, he was at Buffy's house. Then he became aware of a figure leaning over here. He jumped back in shock.
"Jeez took you long enough." Said Buffy. "You're harder to wake than sleeping beauty."
"I thought it was easy to wake sleeping beauty."
"Huh?"
"It only took a kiss from Prince Charming. You didn't…did you?"
"Okay first, your fairytale knowledge is scary. Second, eew!"
"What's eew?" Asked Dawn as she made her way down the stairs.
"Kissing Xander to wake him up." Replied Buffy in a matter of fact way.
"That's not eew."
Both Xander and Buffy looked inquiringly at Dawn.
"What? It's not like I have ever done it or anything. Is that pancakes I smell?"
"Yeah, help yourself."
Dawn made her way towards the kitchen carefully managing not to make eye contact with Xander but in a way which it didn't look like she was trying not to make eye contact.
"You cooked pancakes?" Xander asked with a touch of surprise in his voice.
"What? I can cook pancakes."
Buffy noticed Xander's eye rolling.
"Are you going to bring up that thing every time I cook?"
"I didn't say anything."
"Your eyes did."
"My eyes do more talking than my mouth."
"Nothing does more talking than your mouth."
And with that Buffy left the room.
Xander looked out of the window and seeing that it was relatively light he figured that it must be fairly late in the morning. Then he realised that he possessed a watch and therefore a slightly more accurate form of telling the time than simply looking out the window. He was right; it was late in the morning. He had better get going. However as is usual with getting up in the morning he paused to consider whether he really did have to get up. He decided that he had to and so with great effort he started to get up. He reckoned that getting up should be like removing a plaster, fast and sudden. So he quickly lifted his body from the couch but when he obtained a vertical position he was hit by a wave of pain in his lower back. "Aahh!" He shouted in pitch that, if he was a woman, dogs could have heard.
Buffy came rushing into the room but stopped upon seeing only Xander, "What is it?" She asked.
"My back!"
"Does it hurt?"
"Of course it hurts!"
"Man, you're not much of a morning person."
"Not when I have just spent the night on the pain-o-matic here." He said while violently pointing to the couch.
"It's not that bad."
"Have you ever slept there?"
"Well, no. But…"
"I rest my case."
"Are you in a lot of pain?"
"Yes."
"On a scale of 1 to 10."
"The number which means I couldn't care less about the damn scale because I AM IN TOO MUCH PAIN!"
"Alright, calm down. I'll call a doctor. Maybe you should sit down."
Buffy motioned Xander towards the couch.
"No way! Not on that thing!" Xander scanned the room for a different place to sit and saw what looked like to him to be a reasonable comforting chair on the other side of the room and slowly moved towards.
Meanwhile Buffy had got a black book from a small drawer and had dialed a number on the telephone, "Yes Hello? Is this Doctor Deighton?"
"Ow, ow, ow…"
"This is Buffy Summers. Can I have an appointment for today?"
"Ow, God this is torture, ow…"
"Three o'clock. That will be fine. Thanks a lot." Buffy placed the phone back in its original position.
"Ow, ow, OW!" Xander finally managed to lower himself into the chair.
"You okay there?"
"Fine. Never better."
"I booked an appointment for three o'clock."
Xander merely nodded.
"Do you want some pancakes?"
Despair flooded over Xander's face and he started to get up from his chair.
Buffy realising what he was doing quickly added, "I can bring them out to you."
"Oh thank God."
"Is that a yes?"
"Yes. But I don't want to be a bother. Just a couple of pancakes on a plate will be fine."
Buffy nodded and turned to go out of the room.
"Actually make that five; no wait six, six pancakes."
"Anything else?" Buffy said turning back to face Xander.
"Nope."
Buffy turned towards the kitchen again.
"Well, a bit of maple syrup wouldn't hurt."
"Okay, six pancakes and some maple syrup. Is that all?"
"And some orange juice."
"Freshly-squeezed?"
"No, I wouldn't make to be a bother."
"How could you be?"
"Well okay some freshly-squeezed orange juice."
"Coming right up."
Author's note: Don't always believe what you read, especially from people like me. I would like to end this chapter with a quote from perhaps one of the greatest comedians ever, 'Outside of a dog a book is a man's best friend, inside of a dog it is too dark to read.'