Chapter 3 - Storyteller

Buffy walked further into the room where the doctor was waiting for

her to get into bed.

"Hi Doctor Stevens." she greeted glumly as she finally edged onto the

bed.

"Now, Buffy, how have you been today?" he asked.

"Fine," she sighed "look doctor, I know these checks are necessary in

the hospital, but I really am doing fine. I really think I'm ready to

leave now." she insisted.

The doctor let out a small chuckle "Buffy, I'm sure you think you're

fine, but you have been through a lot and been very unwell. You still

have a long way to go." he told her.

"But-."She tried to argue but he interrupted her once again.

"Ok," the doctor interrupted "let's see just how alright you are

shall we. Buffy have you eaten anything today?"

"Um, well" she hesitated "no." Buffy mumbled.

"Didn't think so. Buffy until you are eating normally and have a

proper diet you are not well enough to go home." the doctor told her

sympathetically.

Buffy sighed, resigned to the idea that she was going to be in that

hospital for a long while yet. She knew she wasn't well, and she did

want to get better, but she was worried that unless she could fully

face up to her problems, and the thing that caused them then she

wouldn't get better. But she wasn't ready to face it yet. She wanted

to move on, and she wanted Spike to be the one to help her. But in

her mind it was unlikely that was going to happen. She looked back at

the doctor who had just finished checking her charts.

"Well, Buffy, first things first, get on the scales and let's see how

your weight is doing."

After leaving Buffy, Spike had walked as quickly as possible back to

Drusilla's room. When he walked in she was sitting quietly on her

bed, seemingly in some sort of dream world.

"Hey, Drusilla." he greeted softly. This seemed to pull her out of

whatever dream she had been in and she looked over at him "Hey pet, I

got your things, want to see what I brought?"

She smiled brightly and nodded her head. Spike moved over to the

chair by the side of the bed and sat down. He gave her a kiss on the

head and then opened the bag in his hands and began to empty its

contents.

"Ok, first we have..." he rummaged around for a minute before pulling

out the first object "your favourite picture."

Drusilla's face lit up, but seemed kind of sad at the same time, the

item was the last family picture that had been taken before the death

of their parents. It was taken the day before Spike had left for

America, and the family looked so happy. It was the last picture of

all four together. Spike could see the emotion playing on his

sister's face.

"You okay, pet?"

"Yes, Spike, I just was remembering how happy we all were that day.

Mum and dad were ever so proud of you. I remember the said to me

after you went away 'that's our William, such a good boy, he's made

us so proud' they were so proud right until the day they died." she

told him quietly.

Spike had tears in his eyes but tried not to show it, he simply moved

on to the next items, he reached into the bag and pulled out a

selection of clothes.

"Here are all of your favourite outfits." he told her, she smiled and

waited for him to continue, he reached in and brought out a book of

poetry and a sketchbook.

"That's the last of it pet, the book of poetry you read all the time

and your sketch pad and drawing things." he finished.

She smiled widely at him.

"Thank you, my Spike, all my favourite things, right here with me all

the time. Yay." she laughed excitedly.

"Well I'm glad your excited pet, but because of you little

disappearing act earlier, I have to go. Visiting is over. I'll see

you soon." he told her kissing her on the forehead.

She looked downcast but didn't protest, she just stood up and moved

to give him a hug

"Alright, my Spike, I'll stay here next time you are coming to visit.

I'll see you later." she said.

"Alright, pet, I'll see you soon. Take care Dru." he told her in way

of a goodbye.

He kissed her forehead and turned to leave the room. As he walked

along he saw a doctor leave the room that Buffy had gone into

earlier, however, he did not see Buffy leave. He remembered that she

had said she preferred spending time with the patients as opposed to

the staff, and guessed she must have stayed to talk to the occupant.

He walked up to the door intent on going in to say goodbye to Buffy,

but thought better of it, not wanting to impose on a patient, so he

walked away from the door again and left the hospital.

It was a week later before Spike was visiting Dru at the hospital. He

had a big job on and hadn't been able to afford taking the time off.

In that week he had thought about Buffy numerous times, just as she

had of him. As he walked through the corridors he looked around to

see if Buffy was around but he didn't notice her. She was there

though, she was watching from her room door as he opened the door to

Dru's room. She decided to wait a few minutes until she was sure he

wouldn't come out again and then go to the television room to avoid

him, as much as she wanted to see him again, she didn't want to risk

him finding out the truth about her.

Spike walked into Dru's room to find her sound asleep with a doctor

writing in her chart.

"Hi, doctor, what's going on?" Spike asked worriedly.

"Oh, she had a bit of an episode about half an hour ago, she was

screaming and talking about the stars and then tried to lock herself

in the bathroom. We had to sedate her." he informed Spike.

Spike was upset he wished he had come sooner, couldn't help thinking

that if he had then it wouldn't have happened but deep down he knew

his presence wouldn't have made any real difference, it never did

when she went into one of her episodes.

"Ok, doctor." Spike said.

"There probably isn't any point in you sticking around. She won't

wake up for hours at least. If she even wakes up again tonight." the

doctor advised.

"Well, I may just go and have a coffee or something and then come

back to check on her before I go. Would that be okay?"

"Of course, no problem" the doctor said as he exited the room.

Spike left just a few moments later. He walked hurriedly down the

corridor. Half way to the elevator he collided with someone. He felt

a sense of deja- vu when he saw who he had bumped into.

Buffy had just walked out of her room, she was walking with her head

down so she wouldn't be recognised if Spike did happen to be around.

She was walking at a fast pace, and then hit a hard body. She groaned

and then looked up, meeting the same blue eyes as the last time, the

eyes that belonged to the very person she was trying to avoid.

"Bloody hell, Buffy, luv, I'm so sorry." he apologised .

"Don't worry about it," she assured him "but I do need to breathe."

Spike jumped up and held his hand out to help her up.

"I'm sorry." he said again.

Buffy giggled at how much he was apologising.

"I said don't worry about it. I'll live. And anyway it's not everyday

I get to tell the girl's I had a gorgeous guy on top of me."

Spike raised an eyebrow and it suddenly hit Buffy what she had just

said

"Oh my God, I sound like Anya. I am so sorry." she stumbled out

blushing profusely.

Spike simply looked at her with an amused look on his face.

"Don't worry pet." he reassured her.

"So where are you headed?" she changed the subject.

"Well, I was here to see my sister but she wasn't doing great today.

I was just heading to get a coffee. Hey, do you wanna join me?" he

offered with a smile, all the while feeling oddly nervous.

Buffy looked at him and returned his smile. "Yeah, I'd like that."

Ten minutes later the two were sitting at a table in a quiet corner

of the cafeteria. They were both silent at first, with Spike

eventually breaking the ice.

"So, Buffy, how did you come to be volunteering here?" he inquired.

Buffy chewed at her lip nervously, thinking of the best way to

explain, she wasn't ready to tell him the truth, so she tried to

think of a convincing story, after a moment she saw that he was

waiting for her to answer so she started her story.

"Well, I was in college up until a year ago, things were good, and

the way it always seems to happen, the good went bad. I was just

about to start my senior year, majoring in psychology, and then I

found out I was pregnant. That was a big shock for me."

"So you have a child." he stated.

"Actually no, but I'll get to that. Anyway, a few weeks after that my

mom got sick. She's okay now, but she had cancer. Had to go through

surgery and chemotherapy. It was a very stressful thing. I had to

drop out of college. Then about four months into my pregnancy, my mom

was really unwell, I had to do everything and it was too much. I lost

the baby. After mom got better she moved away, she wanted to start

over, and do something different. With no college I needed something

to fill my time, so I decided this would be a good way to do it." she

finished.

Spike looked on in amazement thinking about how much she had been

through and yet she wanted to keep helping other people. He couldn't

help but think that she was someone very special.

"So, what do you wanna do now? Are you going back to college or what?"

"I wanna go back, but I think I wanna train as a nurse or something.

Working here has shown me how important the job is, and it's the kind

of job where in some small way you do make a difference and that's

what I want to do." she told him "But enough about me, what do you

do?"

"Well," he started "I design websites. It's cool. Not the job I

always wanted but I do like it. At the end of the day, it was much

more sensible than what I wanted to do. I needed something that paid

the bills and the job I have does that, I can afford a good living."

he finished.

"What is it that you wanted to do?"

"I wanted to be a writer. I've always loved books and poetry and I

write my own stuff. But, it isn't the most reliable profession." he

told her

"But you should always follow your dreams." she insisted.

"Much as I agree with that statement pet, sometimes you have to put

them on hold for a while. But I do want to do some writing

eventually." he said.

"Cool, so what about your family?"

Spike suddenly felt very uncomfortable, not because she had asked,

she didn't know. It was because he had never talked about it with

anyone. But he decided now was as good a time as any to start. After

all she had opened up to him. He cleared his throat before beginning.

"Actually, my parents are dead. They died last year. That's why I'm

here. My sister was very close to them and hasn't coped well with

their deaths. She became very depressed and has basically gone mad.

She tried to kill herself.."

Buffy gasped and regretted asking him, she wanted to know about him

but she felt very insensitive

"Buffy, don't worry, you didn't know. I haven't talked about it

before, but I'm glad I finally told someone. My friends know but

generally I avoid the topic with anyone else."

"Well, I'm glad you felt you could confide in me to some extent." she

said genuinely.

They shared a smile and got back to their conversation talking foe

the next hour about anything and everything. Each becoming more and

more interested in the other. They talked so much that neither

noticed that all the other visitors had gone.