Catastrophe
by
Disclaimer: I don't claim. Not mine. Bow to Joss Whedon.
Author's Note: Feedback may decide whether I finish this, so please tell me if you loved it, hated it, or somewhere in between!
Summary: An AU version of the events after the 5/15/01 BtVS episode. (Right after 'Spiral')
Rating: PG, so far.
That evening, the rescue crews were long since there, and Spike had been told to stay away from the area, but of course, had heeded them little. Buffy, Anya and Xander had been air-lifted to a hospital in LA, and it had been 'recommended' that Spike go with them, but the vampire resisted, and was soon ignored.
The crews had paid him little attention, however, and his stealthy nature had enabled him to creep past them and into the wreckage with little trouble. They, too, had a description of Dawn, but Spike didn't know if they would find her.
Buffy had authorized him to identify her, should she be found without ID and/or unable to tell the crews who she was. There were, after all, quite a few lanky, dark-haired fourteen-year-olds in Sunnydale.
It was on the second night that Spike found her. He'd been just about to abandon his search of the caved-in old warehouse because he could see the rescue crews heading his way, but a little whine, barely perceptible, stopped him. "Dawn?" He called.
The whine again. He headed towards the sound, but he wasn't entirely sure where it was coming from. "Niblet, can you talk to me?"
"Spike..." Came a whisper-thin sound.
Spike dug furiously through the rubble towards the sound of the Slayer's baby sister's voice. "I'm here, Niblet. I'll get you out."
Dawn was buried under the rubble, but had been lucky enough that a bookshelf had collapsed on top of her, taking the vast majority of the weight. She'd been struck on the head, from the looks of it, her mild confusion helping to clue him in. "Spike?" She asked, looking up at him.
Spike stood, and yelled out to the crews, regardless of the fact that he wasn't supposed to be in the area. "Over here! I found her!"
Because they weren't currently working on anyone, just searching the area, they immediately ran to Spike's cry, hoping to help one more poor individual.
The crews uncovered her quickly, only momentarily chastising Spike for being in the danger zone. "This her?" One of them asked.
"Yeah. That's the Niblet."
The rescue worker gave him a funny look, and he explained as little as possible. "Just a nickname." That seemed to satisfy him, and her returned to uncovering Dawn from the rubble.
Once they had her out, they braced her so many ways that Spike wasn't sure she could move anything. She cried out for him, and despite all of their complaints, managed to stay by Dawn's side all through the helicopter ride.
When they landed, and ran her away from him, he lost them.
Striding impatiently into the ER, he hurried to the desk. "Dawn Summers was just airlifted in here. I want to know what's going on!"
The nurse looked down at her chart. "Dawn Summers is in trauma two. But the doctors are working on her, and you can't go in there, sir," The nurse continued, when it looked like Spike was going to take off in that direction.
Spike looked over at the woman, and bit his tongue before spitting out that he could do anything he darn well pleased. "But I can watch, right?" He asked.
The nurse looked hesitant, but nodded. "Trauma two is down that hall, second door on the right. It has a glass window. Don't enter the room, sir."
Spike ignored the older woman and hurried down the hallway as fast as he could with people pushing at him from all sides. He found the room, and was relieved to note that Dawn wasn't on any kind of breathing device, she seemed to be conscious and breathing on her own.
He watched as they attended to her, poking and asking if things hurt. A normal person wouldn't have been able to identify the doctors voices over the din, but vampiric hearing easily could.
Eventually, one of the doctor's and a bunch of nurses wheeled her out of the room, and Spike ran alongside them as they relocated her to a room. "What's going on?" He demanded loudly.
Dawn tried to look up at him, but couldn't because there was still a brace on her neck. "Spike?" She asked, her voice full of anxiety.
"Yeah, it's me, Dawnie." Spike dashed forward, and managed to get where she could see him.
Dawn's eyes teared a little. "Spike!" She cried, relief apparent in her voice.
Spike grabbed her hand, and gave a little smile, which felt funny on his face because of the long period of time it had been since he'd smiled. "It'll be okay, Niblet, I promise."
Once they'd gotten Dawn settled in in a room, the doctor pulled Spike aside. "Who are you?" She asked without preamble. "Brother? Friend of the family?"
"Friend of the family," Spike replied.
"I'm afraid I can't discuss patient's conditions with anyone but immediate family." The doctor told him.
"Look," Spike told the woman, "Her sis is here too, in bad shape. Her mum died a couple of months ago, dad's in Spain and can't be reached. Please, how is she?"
"I'm afraid I still can't disclose that information."
Suddenly, Spike remembered something, and pulled a piece of paper out of his pocket. "Here!" He remarked triumphantly. "Her sis signed this when she knew that she wasn't going to be able to be here." He handed it to the doctor.
She glanced over it, and looked up at him. "It looks alright. And it says that you're to be treated as Dawn's guardian until she's released from the hospital."
She looked back at the younger girl, who appeared almost asleep, but her eyes were still wide open. "She's not very good. She's got a broken leg, and a broken arm. She's seriously dehydrated, and has a fair loss of blood, which, interestingly, is not associated to the rest of her condition. You wouldn't happen to know what happened, would you?"
Spike shook his head, and the doctor continued.
"The bottom line is, she'll live, but it's going to be a rough road to hoe. I'm surprised she was conscious when we got to her, but I doubt she's going to stay that way. Her leg is broken in several places, were it any more shattered, she might have lost it, but as it is, it will require several surgeries.
"My advice is, go home and get a good night's sleep. She'll probably be out most of the night, and maybe most of tomorrow, too. You'll then need to be present when we tell her about her injuries, and make a few minor decisions regarding the surgeries." The doctor gave him a curt nod, and headed off as a nurse called her name.
Spike, for his part, went quietly in to check on Dawn, sitting next to her and just holding her hand for a long time, maybe a couple of hours.
Sometime in the middle of the night, he went to the front desk, and asked where he could find Buffy. They directed him to the third floor in room 603, but cautioned him that visiting hours were definitely not in the middle of the night.
Spike pretended to retire, leaving the hospital and coming in another entrance, and nobody attempted to stop him on his way to Buffy's room.
When he reached her room, he peered through the door, intending just to watch her sleep, but he noticed immediately that she wasn't sleeping. She looked up at him, and motioned him inside the room.
Spike slipped in silently after checking the hallways, and hurried to her side. "Buffy!" He whispered. "How are you, love?"
Buffy gave him a wry smile, not even bothering to make a face at his calling her 'love'. "I don't know. Nobody knows. 'Maybe we'll know more in the morning.'" She said, obviously impersonating some doctor who'd been talking to her, or another doctor or nurse.
"How's Dawnie?" She asked worriedly.
"She'll be okay. But it isn't going to be easy for her, Buffy. The doc says she'll need a few surgeries for her leg, she broke it."
Buffy looked down for a long moment, and then looked back up, but kept her eyes averted from Spike's. "Will... will you stay with me?" She asked. "I couldn't sleep. Maybe having someone here would help."
Spike gave her a little smile. "'Course, Slayer." He reached over and patted her hand, then got up to make sure that the curtains on her window were thick enough. After that, he returned to her side, and just sat there, watching her, long into the early morning.
Spike was awakened by the ordinary bustle of the early morning in a hospital. He looked around, then, having ascertained where he was, returned his attention to Buffy. She was still asleep, and he smiled at the angelic expression that covered her face in sleep.
The door was pushed open, and Spike started, as did the nurse who was pushing a tray of I.V. bags. "Sir, you shouldn't be here," She told him. "Visiting hours don't start until much later."
Buffy rolled a little, and blinked. Spike ignored the nurse, and turned to her. "Good morning, Slayer," He greeted her.
Buffy was just about to go 'what the hell are you doing here, Spike?', he could see it in her expression, but then she remembered the previous day, and her face crumpled, sobs for the lost lives of her friends consuming her body. Spike leaned down and held her, offering no empty comfort, instead, just allowing her body to exhaust its reservoirs of grief in familiar arms.
The nurse was still there, changing the I.V. around Spike's body. She'd been trying to convince him to leave for some time now, but after the first time, Spike hadn't so much as acknowledged that he'd heard her. She left the room in a huff, and he wasn't surprised when a doctor and a couple of orderlies strode into the room moments later.
"Excuse me, sir, but I really need to ask you to leave," The doctor told him in a firm tone. Spike looked up at the man, and sent him what used to be his most terrifying look.
"Can't you see that she wants me here? In what world does a hospital throw out people who are providing emotional support for someone who just lost two friends and the man who might as well have been her father in the space of the last twenty-four hours?" Buffy began to sob a little harder in his arms, having quieted when the doctor entered, but not able to hold it in at the verbal reminder.
"I'm afraid, sir, that it's not up to me. There are policies, and that's just one of them," The doctor explained to the irate vampire.
Spike looked down at Buffy's slight body in his arms, and then thought about Dawn. It wouldn't do to have himself in so much trouble that he couldn't visit either of them. "Buffy," He said softly, glaring at the doctor the whole time, "I have to go. There's a rule about people visiting."
Her only response was a muffled "No!" Against his clothing.
One of the orderlies stepped forward to try to reason with the grief-struck Slayer, but met with little more success than Spike previously had. Her only answer was "No!"
Eventually, the orderlies consented to allow Spike to stay with Buffy, for the simple reason that no one could remove the vampire from the Slayer's inhuman grip. Spike chuckled when he realized this, but then turned his attention back to comforting the now-exhausted and tear-stained girl.
He realized that she'd fallen asleep in his arms, and he gently lay her back against the pillow, quickly scribbling a note explaining where he was before he left.
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