Title : Dirty Mind

Author : Tobias Spiegler

Disclaimer: I own nothing

Summary: Post 'Dirty Girls'. What would have happened if Xander's injury had some more drastic effects on him?

Author's notes: Well, you're all probably waiting for the next part of Stolen Innocence and I promise, that'll be the next part I'm working on. But I just had to write something about season 7, venting some steam to get my head free. Just tell me if I should continue with this story.

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The hospital was particularly deserted at this time of he night. The survivors of the attack against the First and Caleb rested in their hospital rooms. Five minutes ago the last of the SITs was finally able to fall asleep.

The still motionless body of Xander Harris rested in one of the beds, the left side of his head covered in bandages that protected his now empty eye socket.

It was that moment that a lone figure chose to enter the room, immediately spotting the carpenter. He silently walked up to his bedside and stared down at him.

"Man," he said and sighed. "This time you got yourself into deep trouble Alexander. Your lucky that someone up there likes you."

With these words he placed his hand above Xander's eye. Suddenly his hand began to glow. "Can't return what you lost, but I can make it better," he said and a fine stream of yellow light went from his palm to Xander's empty socket. The Man did this for a minute before he removed his hand.

"And now," he whispered and grabbed Xander forehead in his hand, "remember."

And with that words Xander jumped up from his bed, the stranger suddenly gone.

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Willow walked down one of the corridors of Sunnydale Hospital. After three hours of sitting at Xander's bedside she decided to do something. So she got off and searched the hospital for an eye patch fro her friend. She knew that he couldn't use it immediately. His eye had to heal first, but still it was better than sitting there and feeling useless.

She just rounded the corner when she spotted crowd standing around the entrance of the hospital room Xander and the SITs shared. She quickly rushed passed the people and looked within and was shocked at the scene in front of her.

Xander stood in the middle of the room, struggling with three orderlies at the same time. Another one already lay on the ground, his nose bleeding.

He was currently chocking one of the guards, when he kicked another one on the head knocking him out. The third orderly quickly took some steps back, getting some distance between himself and Xander.

When the ordely in his arms finally lost consciousness, Xander dropped him on he ground where he joined his two colleagues.

Xander scanned the people around him, searching for more potential threats. He looked furious, his chest was rising and falling pretty quickly and had a look of pure rage in his eye.

Willow finally snapped out of her daze and slowly walked up to her friend. Xander immediately turned into the direction of the redhead. He mustered her, almost like trying to decide if she was a threat to him or not.

"Xander it's me," Willow said and took another step forward. When nothing happened she crossed the gap between her and childhood friend until she stood in front of him. Xander had meanwhile calmed down. He looked at her, and finally recognition came back to him.

He reached out with his arm and touched Willow's cheek. "Willow?" he stammered out.

"Yeah," Willow exclaimed happily and threw herself into the arms of her friend. Xander clung to her for dear life and completely forgot the world around him

He didn't even notice it when one of the nurses place a syringe at his arm and emptied the tranquilizer into his body. Xander's body suddenly went limp and two other orderlies carried him back to his bed.

"What happened?" Willow asked the responsible doctor, while the orderlies placed Xander into his back. The rest of the hospital staff was currently busy examining the wounded orderlies on the floor,

"I have no idea," the doctor admitted. "Miss Rosenburg, was Mr. Harris every in any kind of military unit?"

"Xander?" Willow asked confused. "No. Why?"

"Cause he screamed that we would get nothing out of him," the doctor explained "And then he always repeated his rank and his identification number."

"My god," one of the nurses exclaimed, when she removed Xander's bandages to check for his eye.. "Doctor, you have to see this."

The doctor quickly rushed to the nurse's side, Willow following him.

"What is it," Willow asked worried "Is he hurt?"

"Quite the opposite," the doctor said when he examined the wound for himself. "The wound around his eye. It has completely healed."

"What?" Willow asked with disbelief. She pushed the doctor aside and watched for herself. But that didn't change the facts. Xander wound had completely healed.

"I've never seen anything like this before," the doctor muttered.

Willow stared in shock at her friend then back at the doctor.

"I have to make a phone call."

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Consciousness slowly dawned back on Xander. And with that came the memories of the last hours. The battle against Caleb, him losing his eye and the pain. But surprisingly his eye didn't hurt anymore when he finally was fully awake.

Deciding to bless God for the little wonders, he wanted to open his good eye when he heard the voices. He immediately recognized them as Buffy's and Willow's. He wanted to sit up and make his presence know, but a small voice in the back of his head told him to wait. So he lay there and followed the conversation.

"And his wound has completely healed," Buffy asked bewildered.

"Yeah," Willow exclaimed. "I couldn't believe it until I saw it myself."

"Any idea what might have caused this?" Buffy asked.

"No, I have no idea," Willow admitted. They paused for a second "Wait a second, you are not thinking..."

"Willow," Buffy to her friend "We have to be completely objective on this thing."

"What do we now about Caleb?" Buffy asked rhetorically. "He seems like a normal human, but he has supernatural strength. He is the leader of the bringers. He poked Xander's eye out. So, what if he tried to turn Xander into a bringer?"

Again both women kept quite for a moment. That was exactly the opposite to what was happening inside of Xander's head. Objective, Xander mocked Buffy in his head. Let's keep Spike running around and killing people. But if I get injured I'm immediately one of the bad guys.

"And you think he might have succeeded?" Willow finally asked.

"I don't know." Buffy admitted.

"But Buffy, that makes no sense," Willow interjected. " I mean, the doctor told me that Xander seemed to him like a soldier. The sounds more like his memories from Halloween returned."

"Either way, we have to keep a close eye on him," Buffy declared "If they managed to turn him into a agent of the First, then we have to be very careful. God knows what damage he could cause."

"Please Buffy, don't tell me you are going to kill him," Willow pleaded.

"I don't know Will," Buffy admitted and sighed. "It could be like being turned into a vampire. Maybe we would do him a favour with it."

"I'm not giving him up Buffy," Willow declared sternly. "I can try some spells n him, finding out if something changed with him."

"You can do that," Buffy said and Xander could hear footsteps as they walked out of the room. "Let's check up on Rona. She is currently being X- Rayed. They want to see how bad exactly she is hurt."

When they finally were away, Xander opened his eye and took a look around him. No one else was in the room, the remaining Sits were obviously asleep.

He climbed out of his bed, careful not to make any sound. He spotted a sink with a mirror on the other side of the room and walked up to it.

Slowly at first, but when he realised that he had no problem moving with one eye he quickened his pace. When he was at his destination, he took a long look in the mirror. Finally he removed the bandaged around his left eye and looked into his reflected face.

Willow didn't joke. His eye looked fine, except for the lack of eye. But it seemed like the wounds had healed.

He could partly understand why Buffy was disturbed by the fact. Nonetheless, he had no interest getting locked up in the slayer's basement, just because she thought the First Evil corrupted him or something like that. Getting out of here was his first priority. Then back to his apartment. Everything else could wait.

He walked back to his bed and noticed for the first time the eye patch at his bedside. He quickly took it and fastened it around his head. He returned to the mirror, to see if it fitted. Satisfied with the results he returned to his bed and began searching for his clothes.

The results of his search weren't that promising. Someone must have taken his clothes, probably because they were full of blood. Xander sighed and thought about his options. He couldn't walk out of here in his hospital gown. Even in Sunnydale something like that would attract attention. But he couldn't stay here and wait for Buffy and Willow to return.

Finally he stepped out of the room and slowly walked down the corridor. He rounded the corner and looked down this corridor. The corridor was completely deserted, only a single security guard leaned against the wall.

Deciding that this was probably his best chance, walked up to the guard. The man looked at him and nodded in greeting. Xander nodded back, but never slowed his pace.

When he reached the guard he sucker punched him in the face, knocking him out instantly. The now limp form of the guard fell into his arms and Xander carried him in the direction of the nearby toilet.

Two minutes later Xander emerged out of the door, completely dressed in the guard's uniform. He walked down the hall, searching for the nearest exit. When he reached it he nodded at the nurse at the front desk and walked up to the door.

Just in that moment Willow and Buffy emerged from the corridor to his left, but luckily neither of the noticed him when they passed. Quickly he opened the door and left the hospital.

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"Did you see that?" Willow asked as they passed one of the security guards. "With that fracture she can be lucky when she is able to hold a soda can in the future."

"I know," Buffy said quietly.

"Buffy, it wasn't your fault," Willow reassured her friend.

"Doesn't make it easier," Buffy told her with a dry laugh.

Both walked in silence up to Xander's hospital room. When they entered they immediately spotted the empty hospital bed.

"Will," Buffy told the shocked wicca. "Call Dawn. Tell them to arm themselves. Just in case Xander shows up."