REPRECUSSIONS
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters except for the ones that I created like Kelli, Alyssa, and Amy.
CHAPTER 28-PANIC SETS IN
"Bloody hell," Spike growled with a surprised look on his face as the hospital around them finally stopped shaking and he turned to check on Buffy.
"What the hell was that," Buffy asked with an impatient scowl on her face as she slowly and cautiously pulled the towel off of Sam's wounds so that she could get a better view of them.
"They look deep," Spike said without the smallest hint of mockery in his voice as almost instinctively Buffy leaned back up against him and sighed deeply, letting her shoulders slump a bit.
"You two can play Florence Nightingale later, we need to find out what the hell that explosion was and find the others, I think that the First is making its big move and we have to counter it…somehow," Angel said with a hurried and impatient expression on his face as he stormed back to where Spike and Buffy had set a now heavily sweating Sam down on an old pile of blankets on the floor.
"Angel…if we don't get her help immediately, or at least stop the bleeding she won't make it much longer," Buffy shot back with an icy glare aimed straight at Angel before Spike gently laid a hand on her shoulder and cautiously interrupted.
"Pet…I think what Peaches is trying to say is that if we stay here Mrs. Captain Cardboard will definitely die, but if we leave and find his Wolfram and Hart underlings than at least she stands a chance in hell of making it, with the added bonus of…," Spike interjected with a cautious but yet serious tone to his voice as Buffy let her head drop forward a bit before she stepped in.
"Okay fine…but one of you is going to have to carry her, and keep your bloodlust under control long enough for…," Buffy relented with a stressed out look on her face as she stood up and glared ahead at Angel.
"Deal…now let's move," Angel promptly announced with a hurried look on his face before he stepped forward and picked Sam up.
Oz had initially intended to try to follow Willow and Dawn's escape after Adam's sudden appearance. Connor's impromptu drive to take Adam on by himself however had thwarted those plans from the get go. Instead Oz had taken an action that he would later be unable to give an explanation for. Using every excuse in the book Oz had gotten Connor back down to the hospital's parking garage. When Oz had tried to find an unlocked car Connor had found himself unable to stay quiet any longer.
"What are you doing," Connor asked with a slightly confused look on his face as he stopped following Oz and leaned back up against a nearby car.
"Trying to find a car that's unlocked," Oz replied as he checked a couple more cars, all the while never once looking at Connor.
"Why…Adam is loose in the hospital and we're…," Connor began to ask with an angry and impatient scowl on his face as he pushed off away from the car and glared over at Oz.
"Looking for a getaway car," Oz replied with a hurried and unhappy frown on his face as he continued to try to open the front driver's side door of every vehicle that he came to.
"You're running away…but," Connor started to say with a very surprised and then furious grimace on his face as he finally moved from his spot and started to follow Oz in earnest.
"I'm not…running away Connor, you heard Willow right, Adam's to powerful for any of us to take on alone, and until we have some more power and a better plan taking him on would be suicide, so I'm going to find a car, pull it up in front of the hospital and then get Willow and Dawn and the others out of here until we can come up with a decent plan of attack," Oz answered with a longwinded speech as he finally found a door that was unlocked and pulled it open quickly before he began to almost frantically search for the keys.
"That's your big plan…I'm going to find my father," Connor announced with a skeptical tone to his voice before he shook his head and started to storm off in the direction of a set of double doors on the other side of the parking garage.
"No…Connor wait…," Oz shouted with a frustrated look on his face before he ran his hands quickly through his hair and then took off after Connor.
"Get out of my way," Cordelia demanded with a very serious and impatient scowl on her face as she balled up her fists and glared at the guard barring her way out of the infirmary.
"I'm sorry ma'am but we're in a code red emergency right now and no unauthorized personnel are allowed to be outside of their approved zones until the all clear is given," An unmovable looking guard stated with a very serious look on his face as he held a hand up in front of Cordelia and refused to budge an inch.
"Not allowed to be…do you know who I am…do you have any freaking idea," Cordelia snapped with a steadily growing scowl of anger on her face as she looked to be about two seconds away from punching the guard when a fully armed Gunn came out of one of the other briefing rooms and stepped forward.
"What seems to be the problem here Greenberg," Gunn asked with his best authoritative voice as he glanced briefly at Cordelia, hoping that she'd take his look to calm down and let him do all of the talking.
"N…no problem sir," Greenberg answered with a very nervous stutter in his voice as he tried to keep from making a bad impression.
"Then may I ask why the lovely Cordelia here is being detained," Gunn wondered with a half smirk on his face as Greenberg opened and closed his mouth a couple of times as Cordelia could have sworn that she heard his heart beating inside of his chest before he finally managed an answer to Gunn's question.
"Because she…came in with an injured girl…she might…," Greenberg started to answer with a very scared look on his face before Fred came around the corner pushing a heavily bandaged Molly in a wheelchair with a nervous looking Kelly at her side and a relieved looking Lorne behind her.
"Cordelia's free to go, Molly here didn't have any diseases or infections, we're all clear…," Fred stated with a very firm and unwavering tone of voice and look on her face as she walked slowly from around behind Molly to stand directly in front of Greenberg.
"Y…yes ma'am," Greenberg stuttered with a worried and scared look on his face before he stepped back and marched quickly down the hallway.
"Ah…finally, thank you Fred," Cordelia said with a huge sigh and frustrated smile on her face as she stepped out of the room and turned to Gunn.
"We don't know where Angel is Cordy, like usual he's gone off on his own, although we do have reason to believe that he has hooked up with Buffy and Spike and several others," Gunn said softly as he guessed what Cordelia was going to ask as he took a step back and looked over at Fred.
"Well then boys and girls, what are we waiting for, call in the army, the navy, the air force, the marines, the…power-puff girls, let's go get Angel before he does something foolish," Lorne exclaimed with an unnatural show of bravado with an energized smile on his face as he clapped his hands together.
"What bug crawled up your but," Kelli asked with a sarcastic grin on her face as she leaned back a bit and tried her best to keep from giggling like a schoolgirl.
"Kelli," Fred exclaimed with a surprised and shocked look on her face as she spun around to glare at the young potential.
"What…it was a good question…just that up until now he's been such a coward and all about everything I just thought that…," Kelli quickly stated in her defense as she looked around the hallway and the stunned looks on everyone else's faces while in her chair Molly suppressed a chuckle of her own.
"Hey, for your information my little chickadee, I am allowed a few sudden spurts of courage every now and then," Lorne shot back with a thinly veiled look of sarcasm on his face as he crossed his arms in front of his chest and frowned down at Kelli.
"So what now, Angel and the others are in trouble and we still don't know anything about that explosion," Molly asked with an impatient look on her face as she looked up first at Fred and then over at Gunn.
"You're right, we don't know what caused that explosion or what it was, however we do know that something freaky is going down at the high school, all of our scouts in that area of town suddenly cut out a few minutes ago, when we checked with our long range cameras it looks like a tornado hit the school, a huge hole is blasted right out of the side, and plenty of those suped up vamps are pouring out of the place faster than we can count them," Gunn answered with a very grim and unhappy look on his face as he took a deep breath in the middle of his explanation.
"Sorry I asked," Molly mumbled softly with a scared look on her face and a chill down her spine and she slumped down a bit in her chair and stared sadly at the floor.
"What was that…," Dawn stammered out after a few silent moments as she pushed herself back up to a seated position on the floor. The force of the explosion had knocked her out of her chair and down to the floor.
"An explosion," Anya answered with a pleased to be helpful smile on her face as she picked herself up off of the floor and started to dust herself off.
"Thanks for that stellar insight An, now I know who to come to with the really hard clues in the Sunday crossword puzzles," Xander joked with a sarcastic smile on his face as he pushed the lightweight mattress of one of the beds off of him and sat up.
"Bite me Harris," Anya shot back with an angry scowl on her face as she stood up and turned away from Xander.
"You okay," Willow asked with a worried look on her face as she and Kennedy untangled themselves from each other. When the explosion had hit the two had flung themselves together and hit the floor, hoping to avoid anything that would be sent flying off of one of the shelves by the force of the explosion.
"Yeah…," Kennedy replied with a shaky smile before she leaned in close and gently placed a kiss on Willow's lips.
"We should get out of here," Xander announced with a very serious look on his face as he went around and checked the exits and the locks on the doors.
"No…we can't, Oz and Connor and Wesley and Faith are still here somewhere, we can't leave without them," Dawn countered with an equally serious look on her face as she struggled to get back up into the wheelchair.
"Oz…Oz is here," Xander asked with a surprised look on his face as he walked back from checking on the doors at the far end of the room.
"Yeah…he and a boy about Dawn's age," Willow added with a nervous look on her face as she helped Kennedy back up to her feet and cocked a worried eyebrow at the bandage on Kennedy's nose.
"Was he cute," Anya asked, appearing as if the amount of mortal danger that they were all in at that moment was completely lost on her.
"Yeah…but that's not important right now, what's important is that we need to find everyone else and regroup at Bu…home base and plan our next move," Willow answered with a lost in thought look on her face as she slowly began to pace back and forth in the middle of the room.
"That's easier said that done Will, with Angel's people and the Initiative both running around out there, not to mention the First and its baddies…," Xander interjected with a serious and concerned look on his face as he crossed his arms and soon began to pace at a perpendicular angle to Willow, with each one only barely missing the other on their route.
Angel had started off carrying the injured Sam through the darkened hallways of the hospital but soon because of his injuries from earlier battles in the night he had been forced to hand her over to Spike. All the while Buffy had taken the lead, expertly wielding the scythe when she needed to as some of the harbingers and ubervampires had managed to find their way into the building and into their path. Angel had done his best to lead them through the myriad network of passageways, some of which seemed to spring up out of thin air, towards the nearest batch of Wolfram and Hart doctors but after what felt like a quarter of an hour they had only managed to get back to the main cafeteria and Buffy ordered an all stop, cleaning some debris off of a chair so that Spike could set Sam down into it.
"I know that we're close, we have to be," Angel announced with a serious look on his face as he checked behind the counters for any ubervampires or harbingers.
"That's what you said five minutes ago Angel," Buffy moaned with an annoyed scowl on her face as she knelt down beside Sam and unconsciously began to fumble around in her pockets for a cigarette.
"Go easy on him luv, can't you see that Angel's suffering from the effects of being a bloody…," Spike joked with a sly smirk on his face before a glare from Angel cut his joke off and he put his abundant amount of energy to better use as he began to search for a first aid kit.
"I smell blood…," Angel stated with a deep in thought frown on his face as he knelt down beside a darkened patch of blood on the carpet and swished his hand around a bit before bringing the blood up to his face so that he could smell it better. A couple seconds later his tongue darted out and he licked up a bit of the blood.
"Ew Angel…anyone ever tell you that you're one sick puppy," Buffy said with an unhappy and grossed out look on her face before she shook her head and went back to getting Sam's vest off so that she could get at her wounds easier.
"Yes…many times in fact, but it didn't matter, I killed them all afterwards," Angel replied with an emotionless and hollow tone to his voice before he half turned his head, saw the shocked look on Buffy's face, and softened his demeanor. "Sorry…channeled a bit of Angelus there," Angel apologized with a nervous and frustrated expression on his face before he wiped the rest of the blood off of his fingers and onto the tablecloth of an overturned table nearby.
"Yeah well next time you get nostalgic, warn me…I'll remember not to eat beforehand," Buffy replied with a slightly queasy look on her face before Spike returned with a couple of towels and the first aid kit.
"How's she doing," Spike asked with a sympathetic smile on his face as he handed Buffy the first aid kit and towels and pulled up a chair for them each to sit on.
"N…not," Sam stammered out with a pained grimace on her face before she squeezed her eyes shut and winced terribly in pain as Buffy accidentally bumped the edge of one of the cuts.
"She's not doing well, her breathing is becoming shallow and her heart rate has decreasing ever since we left the parking lot…," Angel added with a very concerned and grim frown on his face as he began to pace back and forth around the room, cocking his head to one side and acting very impatiently.
"Thank you Angelus M.D., next time you've got some bit of medical insight like that…," Spike started to joke with a sly grin on his face, as he turned his head back towards Angel, before Buffy stepped in with a hand on Spike's arm and by loudly clearing her throat.
"If all the two of you are going to do is argue like two schoolboys I'll…," Buffy began with a less than pleased tone to her voice as she popped open the first aid kit and started to take out the contents.
"Sorry pet, it's just that when Peaches and I get in a tense situation we tend to resort to fighting about anything and bloody well everything to keep from admitting that we're scared or unsure about something," Spike stated with a solemn pout on his face as he only briefly glanced in Angel's direction before he began to unravel some of the bandages.
"Why didn't you just say that in the first place and stay away from the petty bickering," Buffy asked with an impatient look on her face as she took the unraveled bandages from Spike and was just about to gently pull Sam's shirt away from the cuts when the double doors to the cafeteria burst open and in swept Gunn, weapon at ready, followed closely behind by Fred, Cordelia, Lorne, and Kelli.
"Angel…," Cordelia shouted with a happy and relieved smile on her face before she rushed to him and enveloped him in a warm and tight hug.
"Cordelia…what are you…," Angel began to ask with a very surprised look on his face before Lorne cut him off.
"Sorry big guy but no time for idle chit chat with the girlfriend, we've got trouble that'd make Charlton Heston scream like a schoolgirl," Lorne exclaimed with a frantic and hurried smile on his face before he caught sight of Sam's injuries and winced in shared pain.
"Translation…anyone," Buffy asked with a totally confused look on her face as she turned first to Spike and then to Angel, who had just untangled himself from Cordelia's arms.
"We've caught sight of something that looks like a giant snake…or slug, whatever it is it's huge, headed this way, and smashed a hole bigger than a Mack truck in the side of the new high school," Fred answered with a nervous frown on her face as she got a better grip on her axe and tried her best to smile confidently.
"Oh…is that all, and here I was thinking that we were in trouble," Spike quipped with an amused smirk on his face before Buffy smacked him on the shoulder, but turned her head away quickly enough so that he wouldn't be able to catch the smirk on her face.
"Whatever's making a beeline for us can wait, Sam needs medical attention," Buffy exclaimed with a quick glare Spike's way before she set the bandages down on the table and stood up.
"How bad is she," Fred asked with a worried look on her face as she rushed forward and knelt down beside Sam, smiling faintly to Spike in the process.
"Bad enough that if she doesn't get help now she probably won't make it, and I'm really not in the mood to have Captain Cardboard blame me for another one of his relationships going belly up," Spike grumbled with an unhappy frown on his face as he stood up and fished around in his pockets for his cigarettes and lighter.
"She's not going to die, not if I have anything to say about it…," Buffy stated with a very firm and confidant expression on her face as she stepped around her chair, grabbed the lighter and cigarette that Spike had finally managed to produce from the depths of his duster and lit it up before taking a long drag, not caring who saw her this time.
END OF CHAPTER 28