Ch 16. Missing


"Hey."

"Hey." Buffy says, as she walks into David's hospital room. It had been a little over a week since Willow's arrival. She walks up to him and gives him a quick peck on the lips. "What's up."

"Same dilly." He says, unenthusiastically.

"Oh. I guess so, not much change in a hospital room." she smiles, but gets no reaction from him.
"Is something wrong?"

"Oh, I'm sorry, no nothing's wrong. I guess I'm just a little tired."

"Do you want me to go then?"

"Please don't." he takes a deep breath. "I guess there is this one thing bothering' me…"

"What is it?"

"It's Alyssa."

"The room nurse?"

"She's been missing for a little over a week."

"Missing?"

"Well, I don't know if she missing exactly, but she hasn't been in. And the other nurses won't tell me anything, they just say that they don't know…I guess I just a little worried about her."

Buffy stays quiet. He looks up at her.

"Oh, but please don't let me get you down. You came in all smiles and perky and now…just forget about it, okay. It's no big deal. She's probably just under the weather or something."

"Okay."

He smiles at her. "So what's up with you?"

"Um, well I start that new job I was telling you about at the rec. center tomorrow."

"That's great."

"Yeah, I know. You have no idea have glad I am that I'll never again have to say 'you want fries with that?'. The pay's not so great, but the hours are way better and it doesn't involve any type of grease whatsoever. And you know it a good thing, teaching a self defense class. Maybe it could help some people."

"I'm really happy for you."

"Thanks." she smiles.

"So how's Willow adjusting to being back?"

"Good." she nods, "You should have seen it when Xander saw her. Gave her a huge bear hug for like an hour. She's doing a lot better. Everybody seems to be, it great."

"Yeah?" his eyes shift to the side, "I wanna meet her."

"Sure. Okay well I'll bring her by sometime. She wants to meet you, too."

David looks surprised, "Really?"

"Why wouldn't she?"

"Well I mean, does she even know who I am?"

"Of course, I talk about you all the time." Buffy stops, realizing what she said.

"Really?" he says again.

"Um… sometimes."

"Well, what do you say about me?"

"Just stuff."

"Like…?"

"Stuff girls tell their friends but not their potential guys, okay?" she says flatly.

"Okay, I got it." He smiles, playfully. "Ooh, I'm a potential guy."

"Anyway..." Buffy says, changing the subject."So is the whole thing set up for you to go out on Saturday?"

"Yeah, pretty much. It would've been sooner, but Alyssa was the one arranging it and you know she's not here…" he looks down, "But yeah, at eleven I check myself out. And I just have to come back at five."

"So yay, I get ya for six whole hours outta this room."

"Yeah you have no idea how glad I am to leave this room for awhile."

"You can come over my house and meet Willow. Um, then we can go places, like The Bronze. It'll be fun."

""I just hope I won't like hold ya back. I mean I'll still have to be in a wheelchair."

"It'll be fine. Besides you been making a lot of progress right? Pretty soon you won't need it."

"Yeah. Can't wait til that day."

"I can't wait til Saturday, but I have to go now." she says.

She hugs him and kisses him quickly. David gently tugs her back. "No wait, you gotta gimme more than that." He gives her a real kiss, one that's not so quick. Their breaths are intertwined, as he slowly pulls away.
"Much better."

"Oh yeah." she smiles.

```````````````

"You know Dru, I've been thinking…"

"What is it, William? What have you been thinking? What sorts of notions have been floating in the pool of thoughts inside your glorious head?"

"Well, its just I've thought about it and William kinda sounds like a wimpy name. Doncha' think?
And what I need is a names that strikes fear in the hearts of men, you know?"

"You don't like William the Bloody?"

"It's just I don't know yet. Thinkin' maybe something like Thor? Or Night Vader?"

Darla comes in chuckling slightly, from behind the drapes, " No I don't think so…Thor gives you the impression that the person is large, which you are not. And Night Vader is a tad on the corny side."

"Well then, what? I can't think of anything."

"Don't over think it, though. A name can sometimes be what define a person, but mostly just be the words written on their tombstone."

He thinks for a moment, "They didn't write much on my tombstone. It just said my name & the day I was born til the day I died, same goes for my obituary. I mean, I would have liked them to put something like he was a good bloke, a decent worker, aspiring poet or something. But nope…"

"That's right, you were a poet?" she says.

"Well not really a poet, per say, but I did write a few."

"And people hated them. Right?" she says, tauntingly.

"Well I didn't have too many fans."

"I think I once heard them being referred to as worse than being tortured by railroad spikes, or people would rather be tortured by railroad spikes, something like that?"

"Well, what did they know." he mutters, "Besides… they got their wish. Isn't that right Druscilla?"

She beams weakly, "Me and my boy had a little party with some sharp, sharp spikes down by the railroad crossings with a few of his critics. It got a little bloody. It was fun."

"Spikes, huh? Sounds like fun." Darla says.

"Wait, Spike, that's it!"