In the Space of Desire
Chapter Sixteen
The Medical Clinic
Somehow Joyce got them to the clinic in one piece. As her mother skidded to a stop in the nearly empty parking lot, Buffy filed the moment away to use the next time Joyce accused Buffy of being a bad driver.
As soon as the van stopped moving, the sliding door opened and Jenny and Amy piled out at a run. Buffy and Joyce followed more slowly because of Buffy's weakness, but with no less of a sense of urgency.
But as her mother helped her through the parking lot, Buffy realized something and shook off her mother's hands. Joyce looked at Buffy worriedly.
"Don't worry, Mom," Buffy said. "I think the spell worked. I'm feeling stronger again already. Well, not actually strong, but I don't feel sick anymore."
Pausing at the front door, Joyce put a hand to her daughter's forehead. "You aren't running a fever anymore. That's the first time all day."
"Which is good," Buffy said, pulling open the door, "but we've got wounded people in there."
The last two women hurried in to see a room full of chaos. Shards of glass, broken pottery and dirt covered the floor. And there were three motionless bodies. Jenny was crouched by Angel, examining him magically for any leftover trace of the Nathan soul. Amy hunched by Oz and Sonya, and Buffy ran over to join them. Only Joyce noticed the other body, hidden in the corner.
Kneeling next to the forgotten victim, Joyce touched his head and whispered, "Mr. Giles? Can you hear me?"
His glasses were broken, and there were bloody cuts all over him. Joyce ran her fingers over his scalp and was relieved that nothing there seemed to be broken. His right wrist was swelling up like a balloon, though. Then his eyes fluttered behind the cracked lenses, and he groaned.
"Mr. Giles?" Joyce asked louder. "How do you feel?"
"Bloody horrible," he muttered, opening his eyes fully.
Despite her earlier anger toward the man, Joyce breathed a sigh of relief. "Do you think anything's broken?"
"I... I'm not sure... but I have a spitting headache, and I... honestly... I'm not quite sure how I got here. The memories are hazy." He paused and then seemed to take in the surroundings. "Where's Buffy? Where are Sonya and Xander?"
Joyce felt the lingering traces of her anger vanish. This was the man she'd like to think had control over her daughter's night-time life. "Buffy's fine... or she will be soon."
Giles gasped, and the sharp movement of his chest made him wince.
"Be careful," Joyce cautioned. "You might have internal injuries." She looked over at the others. "We need to call an ambulance."
"Already done," Amy replied through the window to the front desk. "They're on their way."
A panicked grasp on her hand made Joyce look back down at Giles. "I remember... vaguely... what I did. Buffy..."
The thought made Joyce frown a little. "You hurt her a lot."
Giles closed his eyes in pain -- this time inner pain. "I should never have..."
"You couldn't have known."
Joyce and Giles looked up to see Buffy standing over them. Her face was drawn, but no longer had the wan, weak cast that had covered it all day. She continued, "You were too wacked out by the spell for us to tell you, but it was Sonya's doctor and those treatments. They were making her heart's desires come true."
"Then she wanted me to be her... father?" Giles surmised with a wheeze as his ribs ground together.
Buffy shrugged. "That's the working theory. You'll have to ask her." Then she turned and walked back to the others.
"Do you think she'll ever forgive me?" Giles' gaze followed Buffy's retreating form.
Joyce sighed. "I don't know what Buffy's going to do about anything. She's been hurt more these past few days than ever before in her whole life. And that's saying something. But I have faith in her. If anyone can get over this, she can."
Giles sank back to the floor from his half-raised position. "I hope you're right."
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Leaving Giles to the care of her mother, Buffy turned and walked back over to Jenny, Oz, Sonya and Angel. Neither Angel nor Sonya had so much as twitched.
"We can't let them take Angel," Buffy reminded Jenny. "The paramedics, I mean."
"You're right." Jenny looked up from her examination of Nathan's last host. "And we can't let them take Sonya, either."
"What do you mean?" Buffy demanded. "I saw Nathan smack her up against that wall. She's got a concussion at best. She needs serious medical help."
"No she doesn't, Buffy." Jenny touched Sonya's head gently.
Oz glared at Jenny. "She needs help!" He swayed a little from his own pain, and Amy came to crouch beside him, helping him to stay seated upright.
"You need help," Jenny said calmly. "And Mr. Giles needs help. But all Sonya's injuries have disappeared."
Buffy, Oz and Amy moved in closer to verify the senior witch's statement.
"It's true," Amy breathed in wonder. "There's not a scratch, or a drop of blood on her. Do you think it's some kind of after effect of the spell?"
"I don't know," Jenny admitted. "Sending the spell through the link was unplanned. I didn't know what kind of side effects it would have. I didn't expect anything like this. I need the chance to examine her, and Angel more thoroughly."
The sound of ambulance sirens became audible in the distance. Jenny looked up at Buffy, waiting to see the Slayer's reaction.
Buffy nodded. "All right, Jenny. You take Sonya into the back room, and I'll take Angel. Amy, help me. Let's get this done before the paramedics get in here."
Working together, the three women got Sonya and Angel into the room where the Nigel body lay unconscious as well. Then they came back out, closing the door behind them.
"We can't let them in here," Jenny said. "And we can't all go to the hospital."
Buffy agreed, and then she looked around the room. "Mom, Amy, can you go with Oz and Giles?"
Joyce and Amy nodded.
"I'll need your car keys," Jenny told Joyce. "So we can get Sonya and Angel out of here as soon as the paramedics are gone."
Joyce had just thrown Jenny the requested item, when the sirens were right on top of them and suddenly paramedics with stretchers and loud voices flooded into the clinic. Giles was strapped onto a stretcher and loaded on to the first ambulance fairly quickly. Joyce rode along with him. The second team took Oz.
"Are you going to Sunnydale Memorial?" Jenny asked.
"Yeah," the paramedic replied, as his partner checked Oz's vital signs.
They were just about to roll him out when Oz grabbed Buffy's arm. Buffy looked down.
"Make sure you..." Oz started. Then he paused with a glance at the paramedic who was listening to every word they said. "... because no one else will."
Buffy nodded in complete understanding. "I will. Don't worry."
Oz relaxed down onto the stretcher and let the paramedics wheel him out to the second ambulance with no more protests.
"See you at the hospital," Amy said with a tired smile, as she turned to follow.
"Hey, Amy?" Buffy called softly.
But Amy heard and turned around. "Yeah?"
"Check on Xander for me, will you?"
"I will," Amy nodded. "Don't worry." Then they were all gone, leaving Jenny and Buffy alone with three unconscious bodies.
Buffy looked at Jenny. "We should take them back to my house. Come on. If we work together we can get them in the van faster."
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
It took much lugging, but eventually Jenny and Buffy got Sonya, Angel and Nigel from the clinic to the Summers' house. They put Sonya on the living room couch, and Angel on the floor with a throw pillow under his head. They planned to lock Nigel in the upstairs guestroom, just in case he woke up more evil than they were expecting.
But he surprised them by opening his eyes just as they laid him on the bed. Shocked, Buffy grabbed the nearest thing that might pass for a weapon -- the bedside lamp -- and clutched it in hands starting to slowly regain their Slayer-strength.
"Nathan," she muttered through gritted teeth, "if that's still you, I'm going to make you pay for what you did to my friends."
The dark haired man stared at them for a few seconds. When he finally answered, his voice came out purely British as opposed to the unplaceable accent it had previously. "The evil one is gone. I am Nigel Goring again, completely."
The blunt statement took Buffy by surprise. "Well... how do we know that for sure?"
"Having watched everything *he* did with my body for the last five years, I understand your uncertainty," Nigel replied, fairly calmly for the circumstances. "I will undergo whatever test you think necessary as I do not want that horror inflicted on the world ever again. But first might I phone my wife and child in England? It's been too long since they heard from me."
Jenny stepped forward, holding a shard of the shattered Orb of Kessla. "The test is simple. Just hold this. It's too weak to do anything by itself, but if the rogue spirit is within you, the shard will glow."
Slowly, Nigel reached out a hand and plucked the pink shard from her fingers. He held it firmly in both hands. They all three squinted at the shard, but there was no glow.
Jenny breathed a deep sigh of relief. "I'm so glad! When Nathan moved from Nigel to Angel, I was afraid that when Angel grabbed the orb, the soul would retreat into its familiar host. There must not have been time."
Nigel looked at them for a minute, and Buffy shivered, remembering those eyes lingering over her strapped to a table beneath a huge knife. From his sigh, Buffy thought Nigel was remembering the same thing. The man stood.
"Wait!" Jenny protested. "What about after-effects of all the spells and the possession? And you don't have any money, or a passport."
"The only good thing about knowing what I did when *he* was in control of my body is that I know where his secret provisions are hidden. I will be fine." Nigel walked out of the bed room, and Buffy and Jenny trailed behind him down the stairs. He paused at the front door and looked back. "Thank you for freeing me from my prison. If any of you ever need anything of me, it's yours. I owe you my life." His black gaze slid to the two unconscious forms in the living room. "And tell them all, for what it's worth, that I'm sorry for what he did."
And then he was gone. Bemusedly, Buffy and Jenny walked into the living room.
"We'd better test these guys with the shard, too," Buffy said, glancing at Angel and Sonya. "I mean, if the spell didn't destroy Nathan's soul, and it's not in Nigel, it could have gone into either one of them."
Jenny started to reply but was distracted by a movement on the floor. Both women turned to look at Angel as his eyes fluttered open.
"Angel?" Buffy asked suspiciously. "Are you... you again?"
Angel groaned and rubbed the back of his head as he sat up. "Yeah... it's me."
"Are you sure?" Buffy crouched beside him and stared into his eyes. She was met by a gaze that bespoke countless years of guilt and pain. "Yeah," she muttered, "it's you."
Jenny walked over and placed the shard in his fingers. It confirmed the amateur diagnosis. It didn't glow. Together Jenny and Buffy helped Angel to his feet.
"How do you feel?" Jenny asked. "Do you remember what happened?"
"Having my body possessed by an insane sorcerer who wanted Sonya for his love slave and then throwing all my friends against walls? Yeah, I remember..."
"How do you feel?" Jenny asked, as if doctoring a vampire were something she did every day.
Angel ran through a mental check list and flexed his arms and legs, then he said, "All right, considering."
"Good," Jenny replied, giving him a contemplative look.
"How are the others?" Angel asked.
"Oz and Giles are in the hospital," Buffy told him sadly. "But on the plus side, Sonya seems to be fine."
Angel's expression flickered with pain as the images of Oz and Giles hitting the walls replayed themselves in his mind. Yet another thing for him to feel guilty about.
"You know," Buffy said, touching his arm hesitantly, "no one blames you..."
"But I blame myself," Angel replied softly.
"Quit with the ego-centric melodramatic crap, Angel. It's getting old."
They all turned at the unexpected voice, and saw Sonya struggling to a sitting position on the couch. "Besides, if you aren't careful, your face will stick that way for the rest of your life, and for you, that's a LONG time to look broody."
Angel let out a bark of surprised laughter as Jenny and Buffy ran toward the couch. They froze in place when Sonya reached the sitting position and started to pull herself to her feet.
"Sonya... you're... but... how..." Buffy stammered.
Sonya looked down at herself, amazed. For once the sharp-tongued girl had no witty remark. She said quietly, "I have absolutely no idea." Then a pained expression crossed her face. "The spell didn't work did it? Nathan's still alive."
Jenny walked over and placed the shard in Sonya's hands. It didn't glow. "The spell worked," she said confidently. "Nathan is gone."
"But what about Giles and Oz?" Angel asked. "Could the spirit have possessed them?"
"Highly unlikely," Jenny replied. "They were too far away at the time. Of course we'll test them when we get to the hospital, but I'm certain that the results will be negative. The spell worked!"
"It's the pills then, isn't it?" Sonya decided, her outburst bringing them back to the topic at hand. "They still haven't worked their way out of my system."
"Do you have complete feeling in your legs?" Jenny asked.
Sonya nodded, shifting her weight to first one leg and then the other. "They feel fine. Perfect even." She slid a glance toward Buffy. "But I can tell that the Slayer powers are gone. You're getting them back, right?"
Buffy nodded. "Slowly but surely."
"Good." Sonya flashed Buffy a quick smile, which Buffy returned.
Then Jenny took Sonya's arm. "Come with me. It's going to take something more than a shard of orb to tell us what's going on here."
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
"... so I did a comprehensive magical scan on Sonya, and it turns out that because she was in contact with Angel when the Nathan soul was destroyed, all of his power went into her."
Everyone in the curtained-off emergency room cubical (Giles and Oz -- who'd been tested with the shard and found to be completely themselves -- in their beds; Joyce and Amy in rickety chairs by the bedsides; and Angel, Jenny, Buffy and Sonya standing by the ends of the beds) stared at Jenny during the witch's concise explanation. Sonya, Angel and Buffy had, of course, heard it all before, but it was just as riveting and unbelievable the second and third times.
"How long will it last?" Giles asked with a worried look.
Jenny sighed. "I must admit, I don't know that. It could last forever, or something could happen to dislodge it. Anything is possible. Something like this has never happened before."
Joyce raised a hesitant hand like a student confused by the trigonometry homework. "Um... does that mean Sonya is a witch now, too?"
Jenny smiled at Joyce, doing her best to make the older woman feel at ease. "No, or at least it doesn't seem that way at this point. When the powers took residence in her, it seems that they began healing her -- perhaps because all the magic in her system already was doing the same thing. This showed up in her lack of injuries from the fight. Then the bulk of the powers settled at the base of her spine, and they are keeping her nerve endings functional. With so much involved in keeping Sonya walking, I doubt she will ever have access to these powers in a casting sort of way -- though, of course, you never know. Anything could happen."
"There is one fringe benefit, though," Sonya said with a slight smile. "I mean besides the walking." She pulled a Swiss army knife out of her pocket, flipped up the blade and sliced open her palm. Those who hadn't seen this before flinched, and then watched in amazement as her skin sealed up before their eyes.
"Did it hurt?" Amy asked, wonderingly.
Sonya nodded. "Yeah... but knowing that it will heal sort of makes the pain not matter so much."
"Well, not that it hasn't been fun, guys, but I've really got to go." Jenny glanced at her watch, noted the insanely late hour and sighed. "Not only am I already behind on my beauty rest, but I never finished grading the tests I'm supposed to hand back tomorrow."
Buffy grinned. "You can keep mine. I don't mind."
"Thanks, Buffy," Jenny said sarcastically. "The weight has been lifted." She turned to go, and then looked at Amy. "Amy, would you mind walking me out? There was something I wanted to ask you." Amy nodded, and the two women started out the door.
"Amy!" Buffy called. The other girl stopped and waited for Buffy get to her side. Buffy asked her question quickly, not sure if she wanted to know the answer. "What did you find out about... you know?"
"Xander's doing all right," Amy answered. "He's up on the second floor. The nurses are very optimistic about his recovery, but they had to tranquilize him, and they weren't sure when he'll wake up."
"Why?"
"Apparently he woke up too soon and wanted to go running off after some girl."
"Oh." Buffy slid a sad glance toward Sonya.
"No," Amy corrected her assumption. "They said he said, 'Buffy.'"
"Really?"
"Yes, really."
Buffy smiled for a second, and then gave Amy a quick hug. "Thanks, now go on. Ms. Calendar's waiting." Buffy turned to go back into the room, and came face-to-face with Angel. He was staring at her with his deep, soulful, brooding eyes, but now there was something more personal in them. Something directed at her. Buffy returned the stare for a few moments, knowing that if she just looked hard enough and long enough she could figure it out. Then she purposefully looked away and walked past him into the room. She didn't really want to know. A few steps inside, she turned and looked back. Angel was gone.
"Guys?"
Buffy's attention snapped over to Oz on his hospital bed. "What's wrong?"
"I really have to pee."
"Here." Joyce handed Oz a big plastic thing with tubes on it. Buffy surmised it was a pee in bed type of things. (Only boys can do that...) she thought with a small smile.
Oz shook his head. "No. I can't use that."
"You want to go down the hall?" Buffy asked, mentally cringing as she remembered from personal experience how hard that was. But Oz would not be swayed, so soon Buffy and Joyce, as the experienced members of the group in caring for broken legs, were helping Oz into the wheelchair provided by the hospital.
"Can I help?" Sonya asked.
Oz darted a glance at her, and then at Giles, then shook his head. "No, we're good."
"Are you sure?" Sonya tried again, but he was sure, and soon enough she found herself alone with Giles. She stared at her shoes uncomfortably, not sure how to be with him after desires she hadn't even known she possessed had caused this to happen to him. "Um... so... how are you feeling?"
"Better than I look, now that the drugs the obliging doctor gave me are kicking in."
At the odd occurrence of Giles making a joke, Sonya was shocked into looking up and meeting his eyes. They were kind and smiling.
That look made Sonya break down in tears -- something she never, ever did. But there she was sobbing. "I'm so, so sorry, Giles! I didn't know! But it's all my fault. I'm so sorry!"
"Come here." The command was both loving and firm. She had no choice than to obey. She sat down in the chair by his side, and he pulled her against his shoulder. He murmured comforting words as she cried -- it was her first real cry, her first real release since everything had started happening. When the storm passed, Sonya sat up again, feeling a lot better.
"Thanks," she said shyly.
"No thanks needed," Giles replied. "Sonya, I know I never say this. I'm no good at emotions, but I want you to know this..."
"You don't have to..."
"Yes, I do." He cleared his throat nervously, and then continued. "Technically, you may only be my ward, but you're like a daughter to me. I may never say it, but I love you."
Tears began to fall from her eyes again, but this time they were happy tears. "I love you, too, Giles. And I couldn't want a better father figure. You know that the one I had was... less than perfect. But you make up for that."
"Don't give me too much credit," Giles said with a small smile. But he did know her past, and he felt a sense of gratitude and relief that he could be there for her, and that at least one thing in this whole sordid mess had worked out to her advantage. Sonya stood, and he amended that thought to two things. "Going?"
She nodded. "Now that you and I have talked, it's time that I go face up to someone else."
Giles looked at her in understanding. "You, go. But come back when you're done."
"Always." She smiled, and then walked out of the room.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Angel couldn't stand being in the cubical any longer after Buffy turned from him and walked away. Xander had hit the nail on the head, as it were, the night before when he accused Angel of being in love with Buffy. The vampire had been in love with her since the first moment he'd laid eyes on her on the day of her accident. Of course, he knew the feeling wasn't mutual, but he dealt. Just like he dealt with everything. But right now, he didn't feel like dealing.
Instead he walked up to the second floor, and from there is was surprisingly easy to find the room he was looking for. He stepped in and saw Xander laying in bed, his eyes closed, hooked up to an IV by one arm. The boy's face was as pale as the pillow under his head, looking odd contrasted against his dark hair and eyebrows.
Angel wondered when Xander would wake up. He wanted to talk to his "little brother." He wanted to make sure they didn't leave things the way they had been left for the past day or so any longer than they had to.
Of course, Angel had thought of the idea that if Buffy could never forgive Xander that maybe she could find feelings for her vampire admirer, but Angel didn't really want that. Now that he know what had really been behind Xander's actions, Angel knew he couldn't stand in their way. But he also wanted to make sure that he didn't lose a friend out of it.
After a moment or two, Angel turned to go, deciding he would come back the next night. A croak from the bed stopped him.
"Where ya going, Deadboy?"
"Xander!" Angel said, quickly turning around and walking to the bedside, glad to see the boy's eyes open. "How do you feel?"
"Thirsty."
Angel poured Xander a cup of water from the pitcher by the bed, and Xander drank it greedily.
"Ah... that's better."
"So, no lasting damage?"
"I don't think so."
"And you're... well... you again?"
"Yeah."
"Do you remember..."
"Dumping the love of my life and then trying to rape my best friend? In Technicolor."
Angel felt a weird sense of deja vu -- he'd been through this before, only now he was the consoling one instead of the brooding one.
"It was Nathan, that sorcerer from the Order of Taraka, in the guise of Dr. Keller. It wasn't your fault."
"I know that," Xander said sadly, "but that doesn't mean I won't have to live with the consequences." He paused and coughed, then looked up at Angel. "I'm sorry for the way I treated you."
"Forgotten."
"That easily?"
"That easily."
Xander squinted up at Angel. "At the time I was only trying to make you mad, but now that I think about it, you do have feelings for Buffy, don't you?"
Angel thought about lying, but dismissed it. He owed Xander more than that. "I love her."
Xander looked slightly taken aback at the bluntness of the statement. "Then why didn't you...?"
"Try and take her from you?" Angel's voice was sad. "Buffy loves you. There's nothing I can do about that, and I want you and her to be happy."
"She doesn't love me anymore... I... or Nathan... made sure of that." Xander seemed to forget about Angel's revelation as he delved back into his own personal plight.
"Love doesn't work that way, Xander," Angel replied. "If she really loved you, then she still does. Though it may take awhile for you and her to find that again."
Xander sank back against his pillows with a tired sigh. "I sure hope so."
Angel flashed the boy a smile. "I'm going to go home. Call if you need me."
"Thanks, man," Xander replied.
"Any time."
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Sonya walked up to the second floor with slow, reluctant steps. She didn't want to do this, but she knew she had to. When she exited the stairwell, Angel was just entering it.
"He's awake," Angel told her quietly. "But tired. Be careful with him."
"Thanks," Sonya replied, her nervousness jumping up a few degrees. "I will."
The closer she got to his room, the slower she walked. A hand touched her shoulder. She looked around to find Buffy walking behind her. They stopped a few yards away from the door in question.
"You can go in first, if you want..." Sonya offered.
Buffy shook her head. "When I got up here, I realized I'm not ready yet. You go on. I'm going to walk down to the soda machine, get a Coke, and build up my nerve."
The girls stood there for a second, looking at each other, both remembering what it was like to be almost one. It was an odd feeling. Then Buffy turned and walked away.
Sonya took a deep breath and then quickly walked into his room. Xander was in bed, looking better than he had the last time she'd seen him, covered with books. She was also glad to note the absence of that crazed gleam in his eyes.
"Hey," she said, softly.
"Hello." His tone was clipped, and after the first glance, he didn't look at her.
Her stomach churned with nervousness. "Umm... how do you feel?"
"From when you threw me up against the wall? Better now!"
"Hey!" Sonya protested, taking offense at his angry tone. "I'm not the only one who was wrong in that situation. Some people should learn to take no for an answer!"
"You know good and well that wasn't me!" Xander looked at her, and Sonya flinched from the anger in his eyes.
But she couldn't just let that go unanswered. "Then you also know *good and well* that I didn't do it on purpose!" Sonya paused for a minute, and tried to get ahold of herself. This was not how this was supposed to go. "Look, Xander, I came up here to apologize."
He didn't say anything, so she continued, "I know we've both got some stuff to get over, but... you're my best friend, and I hope that we can get that back."
When Xander answered, his voice had lost its rage, but it was still cold. "Sonya, there is a part of me that still cares about you, but I just can't deal with all this right now. Talking to you just makes me remember all the stuff I did, stuff that other people won't be able to forgive."
"Stuff with Buffy," Sonya guessed unhappily.
"A lot of it, yeah."
"Well, I hope she treats you better than you're treating me," Sonya replied, and with that she turned and ran out of the room.
"Wait! I shouldn't have... Damn!" Xander realized it was too late. He'd let his anger get the better of him, and there was no way he could chase her down. He sighed. Not that he would know what to say if he caught her anyway. He was still so mad at the whole situation and the wreck it had made of his life. He knew intellectually that it wasn't her fault, but since when does the intellect rule the emotions? He sighed again, deeper, as he realized Buffy would likely feel much the same way.
"Hi, Xander."
For a second he thought he was dreaming. It was as if his thoughts had summoned her up from nowhere. Buffy stood in the doorway, halloed by the hallway's fluorescent light.
"Hi, Buffy," Xander managed. "Do you want to... uh... come in?"
Chapter Sixteen
The Medical Clinic
Somehow Joyce got them to the clinic in one piece. As her mother skidded to a stop in the nearly empty parking lot, Buffy filed the moment away to use the next time Joyce accused Buffy of being a bad driver.
As soon as the van stopped moving, the sliding door opened and Jenny and Amy piled out at a run. Buffy and Joyce followed more slowly because of Buffy's weakness, but with no less of a sense of urgency.
But as her mother helped her through the parking lot, Buffy realized something and shook off her mother's hands. Joyce looked at Buffy worriedly.
"Don't worry, Mom," Buffy said. "I think the spell worked. I'm feeling stronger again already. Well, not actually strong, but I don't feel sick anymore."
Pausing at the front door, Joyce put a hand to her daughter's forehead. "You aren't running a fever anymore. That's the first time all day."
"Which is good," Buffy said, pulling open the door, "but we've got wounded people in there."
The last two women hurried in to see a room full of chaos. Shards of glass, broken pottery and dirt covered the floor. And there were three motionless bodies. Jenny was crouched by Angel, examining him magically for any leftover trace of the Nathan soul. Amy hunched by Oz and Sonya, and Buffy ran over to join them. Only Joyce noticed the other body, hidden in the corner.
Kneeling next to the forgotten victim, Joyce touched his head and whispered, "Mr. Giles? Can you hear me?"
His glasses were broken, and there were bloody cuts all over him. Joyce ran her fingers over his scalp and was relieved that nothing there seemed to be broken. His right wrist was swelling up like a balloon, though. Then his eyes fluttered behind the cracked lenses, and he groaned.
"Mr. Giles?" Joyce asked louder. "How do you feel?"
"Bloody horrible," he muttered, opening his eyes fully.
Despite her earlier anger toward the man, Joyce breathed a sigh of relief. "Do you think anything's broken?"
"I... I'm not sure... but I have a spitting headache, and I... honestly... I'm not quite sure how I got here. The memories are hazy." He paused and then seemed to take in the surroundings. "Where's Buffy? Where are Sonya and Xander?"
Joyce felt the lingering traces of her anger vanish. This was the man she'd like to think had control over her daughter's night-time life. "Buffy's fine... or she will be soon."
Giles gasped, and the sharp movement of his chest made him wince.
"Be careful," Joyce cautioned. "You might have internal injuries." She looked over at the others. "We need to call an ambulance."
"Already done," Amy replied through the window to the front desk. "They're on their way."
A panicked grasp on her hand made Joyce look back down at Giles. "I remember... vaguely... what I did. Buffy..."
The thought made Joyce frown a little. "You hurt her a lot."
Giles closed his eyes in pain -- this time inner pain. "I should never have..."
"You couldn't have known."
Joyce and Giles looked up to see Buffy standing over them. Her face was drawn, but no longer had the wan, weak cast that had covered it all day. She continued, "You were too wacked out by the spell for us to tell you, but it was Sonya's doctor and those treatments. They were making her heart's desires come true."
"Then she wanted me to be her... father?" Giles surmised with a wheeze as his ribs ground together.
Buffy shrugged. "That's the working theory. You'll have to ask her." Then she turned and walked back to the others.
"Do you think she'll ever forgive me?" Giles' gaze followed Buffy's retreating form.
Joyce sighed. "I don't know what Buffy's going to do about anything. She's been hurt more these past few days than ever before in her whole life. And that's saying something. But I have faith in her. If anyone can get over this, she can."
Giles sank back to the floor from his half-raised position. "I hope you're right."
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Leaving Giles to the care of her mother, Buffy turned and walked back over to Jenny, Oz, Sonya and Angel. Neither Angel nor Sonya had so much as twitched.
"We can't let them take Angel," Buffy reminded Jenny. "The paramedics, I mean."
"You're right." Jenny looked up from her examination of Nathan's last host. "And we can't let them take Sonya, either."
"What do you mean?" Buffy demanded. "I saw Nathan smack her up against that wall. She's got a concussion at best. She needs serious medical help."
"No she doesn't, Buffy." Jenny touched Sonya's head gently.
Oz glared at Jenny. "She needs help!" He swayed a little from his own pain, and Amy came to crouch beside him, helping him to stay seated upright.
"You need help," Jenny said calmly. "And Mr. Giles needs help. But all Sonya's injuries have disappeared."
Buffy, Oz and Amy moved in closer to verify the senior witch's statement.
"It's true," Amy breathed in wonder. "There's not a scratch, or a drop of blood on her. Do you think it's some kind of after effect of the spell?"
"I don't know," Jenny admitted. "Sending the spell through the link was unplanned. I didn't know what kind of side effects it would have. I didn't expect anything like this. I need the chance to examine her, and Angel more thoroughly."
The sound of ambulance sirens became audible in the distance. Jenny looked up at Buffy, waiting to see the Slayer's reaction.
Buffy nodded. "All right, Jenny. You take Sonya into the back room, and I'll take Angel. Amy, help me. Let's get this done before the paramedics get in here."
Working together, the three women got Sonya and Angel into the room where the Nigel body lay unconscious as well. Then they came back out, closing the door behind them.
"We can't let them in here," Jenny said. "And we can't all go to the hospital."
Buffy agreed, and then she looked around the room. "Mom, Amy, can you go with Oz and Giles?"
Joyce and Amy nodded.
"I'll need your car keys," Jenny told Joyce. "So we can get Sonya and Angel out of here as soon as the paramedics are gone."
Joyce had just thrown Jenny the requested item, when the sirens were right on top of them and suddenly paramedics with stretchers and loud voices flooded into the clinic. Giles was strapped onto a stretcher and loaded on to the first ambulance fairly quickly. Joyce rode along with him. The second team took Oz.
"Are you going to Sunnydale Memorial?" Jenny asked.
"Yeah," the paramedic replied, as his partner checked Oz's vital signs.
They were just about to roll him out when Oz grabbed Buffy's arm. Buffy looked down.
"Make sure you..." Oz started. Then he paused with a glance at the paramedic who was listening to every word they said. "... because no one else will."
Buffy nodded in complete understanding. "I will. Don't worry."
Oz relaxed down onto the stretcher and let the paramedics wheel him out to the second ambulance with no more protests.
"See you at the hospital," Amy said with a tired smile, as she turned to follow.
"Hey, Amy?" Buffy called softly.
But Amy heard and turned around. "Yeah?"
"Check on Xander for me, will you?"
"I will," Amy nodded. "Don't worry." Then they were all gone, leaving Jenny and Buffy alone with three unconscious bodies.
Buffy looked at Jenny. "We should take them back to my house. Come on. If we work together we can get them in the van faster."
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
It took much lugging, but eventually Jenny and Buffy got Sonya, Angel and Nigel from the clinic to the Summers' house. They put Sonya on the living room couch, and Angel on the floor with a throw pillow under his head. They planned to lock Nigel in the upstairs guestroom, just in case he woke up more evil than they were expecting.
But he surprised them by opening his eyes just as they laid him on the bed. Shocked, Buffy grabbed the nearest thing that might pass for a weapon -- the bedside lamp -- and clutched it in hands starting to slowly regain their Slayer-strength.
"Nathan," she muttered through gritted teeth, "if that's still you, I'm going to make you pay for what you did to my friends."
The dark haired man stared at them for a few seconds. When he finally answered, his voice came out purely British as opposed to the unplaceable accent it had previously. "The evil one is gone. I am Nigel Goring again, completely."
The blunt statement took Buffy by surprise. "Well... how do we know that for sure?"
"Having watched everything *he* did with my body for the last five years, I understand your uncertainty," Nigel replied, fairly calmly for the circumstances. "I will undergo whatever test you think necessary as I do not want that horror inflicted on the world ever again. But first might I phone my wife and child in England? It's been too long since they heard from me."
Jenny stepped forward, holding a shard of the shattered Orb of Kessla. "The test is simple. Just hold this. It's too weak to do anything by itself, but if the rogue spirit is within you, the shard will glow."
Slowly, Nigel reached out a hand and plucked the pink shard from her fingers. He held it firmly in both hands. They all three squinted at the shard, but there was no glow.
Jenny breathed a deep sigh of relief. "I'm so glad! When Nathan moved from Nigel to Angel, I was afraid that when Angel grabbed the orb, the soul would retreat into its familiar host. There must not have been time."
Nigel looked at them for a minute, and Buffy shivered, remembering those eyes lingering over her strapped to a table beneath a huge knife. From his sigh, Buffy thought Nigel was remembering the same thing. The man stood.
"Wait!" Jenny protested. "What about after-effects of all the spells and the possession? And you don't have any money, or a passport."
"The only good thing about knowing what I did when *he* was in control of my body is that I know where his secret provisions are hidden. I will be fine." Nigel walked out of the bed room, and Buffy and Jenny trailed behind him down the stairs. He paused at the front door and looked back. "Thank you for freeing me from my prison. If any of you ever need anything of me, it's yours. I owe you my life." His black gaze slid to the two unconscious forms in the living room. "And tell them all, for what it's worth, that I'm sorry for what he did."
And then he was gone. Bemusedly, Buffy and Jenny walked into the living room.
"We'd better test these guys with the shard, too," Buffy said, glancing at Angel and Sonya. "I mean, if the spell didn't destroy Nathan's soul, and it's not in Nigel, it could have gone into either one of them."
Jenny started to reply but was distracted by a movement on the floor. Both women turned to look at Angel as his eyes fluttered open.
"Angel?" Buffy asked suspiciously. "Are you... you again?"
Angel groaned and rubbed the back of his head as he sat up. "Yeah... it's me."
"Are you sure?" Buffy crouched beside him and stared into his eyes. She was met by a gaze that bespoke countless years of guilt and pain. "Yeah," she muttered, "it's you."
Jenny walked over and placed the shard in his fingers. It confirmed the amateur diagnosis. It didn't glow. Together Jenny and Buffy helped Angel to his feet.
"How do you feel?" Jenny asked. "Do you remember what happened?"
"Having my body possessed by an insane sorcerer who wanted Sonya for his love slave and then throwing all my friends against walls? Yeah, I remember..."
"How do you feel?" Jenny asked, as if doctoring a vampire were something she did every day.
Angel ran through a mental check list and flexed his arms and legs, then he said, "All right, considering."
"Good," Jenny replied, giving him a contemplative look.
"How are the others?" Angel asked.
"Oz and Giles are in the hospital," Buffy told him sadly. "But on the plus side, Sonya seems to be fine."
Angel's expression flickered with pain as the images of Oz and Giles hitting the walls replayed themselves in his mind. Yet another thing for him to feel guilty about.
"You know," Buffy said, touching his arm hesitantly, "no one blames you..."
"But I blame myself," Angel replied softly.
"Quit with the ego-centric melodramatic crap, Angel. It's getting old."
They all turned at the unexpected voice, and saw Sonya struggling to a sitting position on the couch. "Besides, if you aren't careful, your face will stick that way for the rest of your life, and for you, that's a LONG time to look broody."
Angel let out a bark of surprised laughter as Jenny and Buffy ran toward the couch. They froze in place when Sonya reached the sitting position and started to pull herself to her feet.
"Sonya... you're... but... how..." Buffy stammered.
Sonya looked down at herself, amazed. For once the sharp-tongued girl had no witty remark. She said quietly, "I have absolutely no idea." Then a pained expression crossed her face. "The spell didn't work did it? Nathan's still alive."
Jenny walked over and placed the shard in Sonya's hands. It didn't glow. "The spell worked," she said confidently. "Nathan is gone."
"But what about Giles and Oz?" Angel asked. "Could the spirit have possessed them?"
"Highly unlikely," Jenny replied. "They were too far away at the time. Of course we'll test them when we get to the hospital, but I'm certain that the results will be negative. The spell worked!"
"It's the pills then, isn't it?" Sonya decided, her outburst bringing them back to the topic at hand. "They still haven't worked their way out of my system."
"Do you have complete feeling in your legs?" Jenny asked.
Sonya nodded, shifting her weight to first one leg and then the other. "They feel fine. Perfect even." She slid a glance toward Buffy. "But I can tell that the Slayer powers are gone. You're getting them back, right?"
Buffy nodded. "Slowly but surely."
"Good." Sonya flashed Buffy a quick smile, which Buffy returned.
Then Jenny took Sonya's arm. "Come with me. It's going to take something more than a shard of orb to tell us what's going on here."
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
"... so I did a comprehensive magical scan on Sonya, and it turns out that because she was in contact with Angel when the Nathan soul was destroyed, all of his power went into her."
Everyone in the curtained-off emergency room cubical (Giles and Oz -- who'd been tested with the shard and found to be completely themselves -- in their beds; Joyce and Amy in rickety chairs by the bedsides; and Angel, Jenny, Buffy and Sonya standing by the ends of the beds) stared at Jenny during the witch's concise explanation. Sonya, Angel and Buffy had, of course, heard it all before, but it was just as riveting and unbelievable the second and third times.
"How long will it last?" Giles asked with a worried look.
Jenny sighed. "I must admit, I don't know that. It could last forever, or something could happen to dislodge it. Anything is possible. Something like this has never happened before."
Joyce raised a hesitant hand like a student confused by the trigonometry homework. "Um... does that mean Sonya is a witch now, too?"
Jenny smiled at Joyce, doing her best to make the older woman feel at ease. "No, or at least it doesn't seem that way at this point. When the powers took residence in her, it seems that they began healing her -- perhaps because all the magic in her system already was doing the same thing. This showed up in her lack of injuries from the fight. Then the bulk of the powers settled at the base of her spine, and they are keeping her nerve endings functional. With so much involved in keeping Sonya walking, I doubt she will ever have access to these powers in a casting sort of way -- though, of course, you never know. Anything could happen."
"There is one fringe benefit, though," Sonya said with a slight smile. "I mean besides the walking." She pulled a Swiss army knife out of her pocket, flipped up the blade and sliced open her palm. Those who hadn't seen this before flinched, and then watched in amazement as her skin sealed up before their eyes.
"Did it hurt?" Amy asked, wonderingly.
Sonya nodded. "Yeah... but knowing that it will heal sort of makes the pain not matter so much."
"Well, not that it hasn't been fun, guys, but I've really got to go." Jenny glanced at her watch, noted the insanely late hour and sighed. "Not only am I already behind on my beauty rest, but I never finished grading the tests I'm supposed to hand back tomorrow."
Buffy grinned. "You can keep mine. I don't mind."
"Thanks, Buffy," Jenny said sarcastically. "The weight has been lifted." She turned to go, and then looked at Amy. "Amy, would you mind walking me out? There was something I wanted to ask you." Amy nodded, and the two women started out the door.
"Amy!" Buffy called. The other girl stopped and waited for Buffy get to her side. Buffy asked her question quickly, not sure if she wanted to know the answer. "What did you find out about... you know?"
"Xander's doing all right," Amy answered. "He's up on the second floor. The nurses are very optimistic about his recovery, but they had to tranquilize him, and they weren't sure when he'll wake up."
"Why?"
"Apparently he woke up too soon and wanted to go running off after some girl."
"Oh." Buffy slid a sad glance toward Sonya.
"No," Amy corrected her assumption. "They said he said, 'Buffy.'"
"Really?"
"Yes, really."
Buffy smiled for a second, and then gave Amy a quick hug. "Thanks, now go on. Ms. Calendar's waiting." Buffy turned to go back into the room, and came face-to-face with Angel. He was staring at her with his deep, soulful, brooding eyes, but now there was something more personal in them. Something directed at her. Buffy returned the stare for a few moments, knowing that if she just looked hard enough and long enough she could figure it out. Then she purposefully looked away and walked past him into the room. She didn't really want to know. A few steps inside, she turned and looked back. Angel was gone.
"Guys?"
Buffy's attention snapped over to Oz on his hospital bed. "What's wrong?"
"I really have to pee."
"Here." Joyce handed Oz a big plastic thing with tubes on it. Buffy surmised it was a pee in bed type of things. (Only boys can do that...) she thought with a small smile.
Oz shook his head. "No. I can't use that."
"You want to go down the hall?" Buffy asked, mentally cringing as she remembered from personal experience how hard that was. But Oz would not be swayed, so soon Buffy and Joyce, as the experienced members of the group in caring for broken legs, were helping Oz into the wheelchair provided by the hospital.
"Can I help?" Sonya asked.
Oz darted a glance at her, and then at Giles, then shook his head. "No, we're good."
"Are you sure?" Sonya tried again, but he was sure, and soon enough she found herself alone with Giles. She stared at her shoes uncomfortably, not sure how to be with him after desires she hadn't even known she possessed had caused this to happen to him. "Um... so... how are you feeling?"
"Better than I look, now that the drugs the obliging doctor gave me are kicking in."
At the odd occurrence of Giles making a joke, Sonya was shocked into looking up and meeting his eyes. They were kind and smiling.
That look made Sonya break down in tears -- something she never, ever did. But there she was sobbing. "I'm so, so sorry, Giles! I didn't know! But it's all my fault. I'm so sorry!"
"Come here." The command was both loving and firm. She had no choice than to obey. She sat down in the chair by his side, and he pulled her against his shoulder. He murmured comforting words as she cried -- it was her first real cry, her first real release since everything had started happening. When the storm passed, Sonya sat up again, feeling a lot better.
"Thanks," she said shyly.
"No thanks needed," Giles replied. "Sonya, I know I never say this. I'm no good at emotions, but I want you to know this..."
"You don't have to..."
"Yes, I do." He cleared his throat nervously, and then continued. "Technically, you may only be my ward, but you're like a daughter to me. I may never say it, but I love you."
Tears began to fall from her eyes again, but this time they were happy tears. "I love you, too, Giles. And I couldn't want a better father figure. You know that the one I had was... less than perfect. But you make up for that."
"Don't give me too much credit," Giles said with a small smile. But he did know her past, and he felt a sense of gratitude and relief that he could be there for her, and that at least one thing in this whole sordid mess had worked out to her advantage. Sonya stood, and he amended that thought to two things. "Going?"
She nodded. "Now that you and I have talked, it's time that I go face up to someone else."
Giles looked at her in understanding. "You, go. But come back when you're done."
"Always." She smiled, and then walked out of the room.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Angel couldn't stand being in the cubical any longer after Buffy turned from him and walked away. Xander had hit the nail on the head, as it were, the night before when he accused Angel of being in love with Buffy. The vampire had been in love with her since the first moment he'd laid eyes on her on the day of her accident. Of course, he knew the feeling wasn't mutual, but he dealt. Just like he dealt with everything. But right now, he didn't feel like dealing.
Instead he walked up to the second floor, and from there is was surprisingly easy to find the room he was looking for. He stepped in and saw Xander laying in bed, his eyes closed, hooked up to an IV by one arm. The boy's face was as pale as the pillow under his head, looking odd contrasted against his dark hair and eyebrows.
Angel wondered when Xander would wake up. He wanted to talk to his "little brother." He wanted to make sure they didn't leave things the way they had been left for the past day or so any longer than they had to.
Of course, Angel had thought of the idea that if Buffy could never forgive Xander that maybe she could find feelings for her vampire admirer, but Angel didn't really want that. Now that he know what had really been behind Xander's actions, Angel knew he couldn't stand in their way. But he also wanted to make sure that he didn't lose a friend out of it.
After a moment or two, Angel turned to go, deciding he would come back the next night. A croak from the bed stopped him.
"Where ya going, Deadboy?"
"Xander!" Angel said, quickly turning around and walking to the bedside, glad to see the boy's eyes open. "How do you feel?"
"Thirsty."
Angel poured Xander a cup of water from the pitcher by the bed, and Xander drank it greedily.
"Ah... that's better."
"So, no lasting damage?"
"I don't think so."
"And you're... well... you again?"
"Yeah."
"Do you remember..."
"Dumping the love of my life and then trying to rape my best friend? In Technicolor."
Angel felt a weird sense of deja vu -- he'd been through this before, only now he was the consoling one instead of the brooding one.
"It was Nathan, that sorcerer from the Order of Taraka, in the guise of Dr. Keller. It wasn't your fault."
"I know that," Xander said sadly, "but that doesn't mean I won't have to live with the consequences." He paused and coughed, then looked up at Angel. "I'm sorry for the way I treated you."
"Forgotten."
"That easily?"
"That easily."
Xander squinted up at Angel. "At the time I was only trying to make you mad, but now that I think about it, you do have feelings for Buffy, don't you?"
Angel thought about lying, but dismissed it. He owed Xander more than that. "I love her."
Xander looked slightly taken aback at the bluntness of the statement. "Then why didn't you...?"
"Try and take her from you?" Angel's voice was sad. "Buffy loves you. There's nothing I can do about that, and I want you and her to be happy."
"She doesn't love me anymore... I... or Nathan... made sure of that." Xander seemed to forget about Angel's revelation as he delved back into his own personal plight.
"Love doesn't work that way, Xander," Angel replied. "If she really loved you, then she still does. Though it may take awhile for you and her to find that again."
Xander sank back against his pillows with a tired sigh. "I sure hope so."
Angel flashed the boy a smile. "I'm going to go home. Call if you need me."
"Thanks, man," Xander replied.
"Any time."
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Sonya walked up to the second floor with slow, reluctant steps. She didn't want to do this, but she knew she had to. When she exited the stairwell, Angel was just entering it.
"He's awake," Angel told her quietly. "But tired. Be careful with him."
"Thanks," Sonya replied, her nervousness jumping up a few degrees. "I will."
The closer she got to his room, the slower she walked. A hand touched her shoulder. She looked around to find Buffy walking behind her. They stopped a few yards away from the door in question.
"You can go in first, if you want..." Sonya offered.
Buffy shook her head. "When I got up here, I realized I'm not ready yet. You go on. I'm going to walk down to the soda machine, get a Coke, and build up my nerve."
The girls stood there for a second, looking at each other, both remembering what it was like to be almost one. It was an odd feeling. Then Buffy turned and walked away.
Sonya took a deep breath and then quickly walked into his room. Xander was in bed, looking better than he had the last time she'd seen him, covered with books. She was also glad to note the absence of that crazed gleam in his eyes.
"Hey," she said, softly.
"Hello." His tone was clipped, and after the first glance, he didn't look at her.
Her stomach churned with nervousness. "Umm... how do you feel?"
"From when you threw me up against the wall? Better now!"
"Hey!" Sonya protested, taking offense at his angry tone. "I'm not the only one who was wrong in that situation. Some people should learn to take no for an answer!"
"You know good and well that wasn't me!" Xander looked at her, and Sonya flinched from the anger in his eyes.
But she couldn't just let that go unanswered. "Then you also know *good and well* that I didn't do it on purpose!" Sonya paused for a minute, and tried to get ahold of herself. This was not how this was supposed to go. "Look, Xander, I came up here to apologize."
He didn't say anything, so she continued, "I know we've both got some stuff to get over, but... you're my best friend, and I hope that we can get that back."
When Xander answered, his voice had lost its rage, but it was still cold. "Sonya, there is a part of me that still cares about you, but I just can't deal with all this right now. Talking to you just makes me remember all the stuff I did, stuff that other people won't be able to forgive."
"Stuff with Buffy," Sonya guessed unhappily.
"A lot of it, yeah."
"Well, I hope she treats you better than you're treating me," Sonya replied, and with that she turned and ran out of the room.
"Wait! I shouldn't have... Damn!" Xander realized it was too late. He'd let his anger get the better of him, and there was no way he could chase her down. He sighed. Not that he would know what to say if he caught her anyway. He was still so mad at the whole situation and the wreck it had made of his life. He knew intellectually that it wasn't her fault, but since when does the intellect rule the emotions? He sighed again, deeper, as he realized Buffy would likely feel much the same way.
"Hi, Xander."
For a second he thought he was dreaming. It was as if his thoughts had summoned her up from nowhere. Buffy stood in the doorway, halloed by the hallway's fluorescent light.
"Hi, Buffy," Xander managed. "Do you want to... uh... come in?"