And now, the story continues.
An Eternal War
Chapter Four
By IceWing (icewing@one.net)
SunnyDale Memorial Hospital
"One. Two. Three, Lift!" The teenaged patient was transferred onto the table by the emergency room staff. Time was critical in a case like this one. No one knew the extent of the injury which had been caused by the piece of wood protruding from the center of the chest. The pallor of the face and extremities indicated that there was internal bleeding, but already they had him typed and were setting up blood for a transfusion. His shirt quickly succumbed to pair of bandage scissors and was tossed aside. The blood soon seeped from it to the white cotton it was resting on.
Doctor Pantovich looked down at the patient. This was not going to be a good one. It was a minor miracle he was still alive. If he was not mistaken, the piece of wood lodged in the boy's chest, had struck the heart. Even if they could get it out without killing him, there was not a great chance that the damaged organ would continue to function without tearing itself apart. Well, the first thing was to get this wound taken care of.
With a deep breath to focus himself, he braced for a long night and called for the first instrument. "Retractors!"
***********************
As the doctor began to begin the operation to try and save Xander's life, his friends sat and stood in the waiting area, praying to whatever gods would listen that their friend would survive the night.
The shock of the evening's events had started to wear off some of the scooby
gang. Buffy was sitting
on one of the hard plastic chairs, her legs draw up to her chest, her arms wrapped
around them. Her eyes were open, but she was not really seeing anything. Very
softly, she was talking to herself as she rocked back and forth on the chair.
Willow got up from her seat next to Oz and walked over to Buffy. Tears had left
streaks down her cheeks. Buffy looked up at Willow just in time for her head
to rock back from the slap delivered by the red head.
"How could you!?" said Willow in a voice that was not much more than a whisper. "Wasn't it enough that you had done it emotionally to him? You had to physically drive a stake through his heart too?!?"
Buffy recoiled from the verbal lashing that Willow was delivering. But it didn't stop. "He was always there for you, for all of us. But you would never recognize him for it. He always knew that he would probably end up dead because he was fighting by your side. We even tried to keep him out of it, but no matter what happened, how you treated him, how any of us treated him, he was there for you. But what's so sad is that he isn't going to die saving you like he wanted to, taking a shot to save you. He's going to die because you drove a stake into his heart even as he was stopping something from doing you in." And with that, Willow spun around and stalked out of the room.
Buffy watched, tears rolling down her face, as Willow left. She didn't even notice when Giles wrapped his arms around her and held her shaking body close. After a few minutes, Giles pulled away and looked down at her. "Buffy," he began. "She's just upset over all this. Deep down she knows its not your fault. Don't blame yourself. Its going to be ok..."
The slayer, stripped of all her armor and defenses, looked up at the man she though of as the father she wished she had, her eyes full of tears. "I staked him, Giles. I should have know it was him. I looked right at him, and smiled and then I drove the stake into his chest. I should have been able to see. He saw me look at him... And I staked him...."
Buffy pulled away from Giles and resumed her rocking back and forth, tears rolling down her face onto her shirt.
A hand gently pulled Giles back from the severely distraught form of the Chosen One. Turning around, he saw Oz standing there, his shirt also damp from where Willow had been crying on the way to the hospital. Stepping back a few feet, they began to talk softly.
"Giles, not to ask the obvious, but what happened tonight?"
"To be truthful Oz, I am not quite sure." The watcher sat down on the bench along the side wall, and began to clean his glasses. "Somehow, some one or some thing, managed to convince us that Xander was not himself, but instead a vampire."
"Magic?" ventured Oz.
"Most likely, but there was but perhaps fifteen seconds passing from when I lost sight of Xander to when Buffy... Till when."
"When he got put down," finished Oz, a trace of sadness audible in his voice..
"Yes. Now, assuming that was some kind of illusion spell. Of which I must say, if it was, then it was one of the most intricate I have ever seen or heard of. Assuming that, then whoever cast it had, perhaps, ten seconds to see his opportunity, ready himself, then actually cast the spell. I just do not see how something like that could be done so quickly. A spell of that magnitude, even if I had all the ingredients in front of me, would take at least two or three minutes to perform. And then it would not dissipate like we saw."
"So, whoever did this, is very good and very powerful?"
"Oz, who ever did this is more powerful and better than any caster I know. And," Giles paused to clean his glasses again. "And in their first attack against us, they have managed to tear us apart."
In silence, they waited.
The clock read eight a.m. when Doctor Pantovich came over to them. Oz woke the sleeping Willow, her head on his thigh as the doctor approached.
Giles began. "Doctor, I am hoping you have some good news for us?"
Pulling the surgical cap from his hair, the doctor paused before responding. "I have news. We managed to removed the piece of wood from his chest. But it did alot of damage. It missed the major junction of the bronchial tubes, but did destroy several of the smaller air passages. Now, those may heal over time, its to early to tell yet."
"So he's going to be ok?" blurted Willow.
The doctor paused again, before meeting Willow's hopeful gaze. "Honestly, I don't think so. The wooden shard pieced the wall of the heart. The way it lodged kept him from bleeding to death until we got it out. But his heart stopped twice while we were working on him. There's alot of damage there, and frankly, we're all kind of surprised he made it this far. He's a fighter, but the odds aren't good. I'm sorry. I wish I had better news, but we've done all we could. Its up to him and the fates now"
The doctor looked around. "Are his parents here yet?"
Giles looked disgusted as he told the doctor that the parents had been called
but when informed of their son's condition, had laughed and said it was to late
to drive over, and it wasn't like he was going anywhere. The doctor shook his
head sadly. From the corner, Buffy asked if they could see him.
Willow glared at her, the venom in her eyes enough to peel paint. The doctor
considered for a moment and nodded. But they could only see him one at a time.
He was being transferred to one of the ICU rooms and it would take a few minutes
before they would be allowed in.
*********
Darkness. It was surrounding him. He could feel that the ground beneath him was angled. Every time he moved, he could sense he was sliding a little bit farther down. Instinctively he knew that sliding down this particular slope would most definitely not be a good thing.
Xander Harris tried very hard to be a statue.
*************
Buffy sat in the chair by Xander's bed. His hand was in her's. But as much as Xander Harris would have loved to have been holding that hand, his was limp and unresponsive. Willow and Oz had left just before noon. Giles had volunteered to go get some sandwiches from the cafeteria for the both of them. Her eyes were misty as she looked at all the machines surrounding his still form. Machines which were keeping him alive.
She looked at him. The bandages on his chest were clean. Hiding from the world the wound that she had inflicted on her best friend. Tears began to flow as she silently berated herself for not seeing what was occurring during the fight.
In her mind's eye, she replayed the scene again and again. Xander coming at her, sword upraised, swinging to decapitate the vampire who was preparing to attack her from behind. The split second that the stake pierced his chest. She should have known it was him and not the vampire that it had seemed to be. Giles and Oz both had tried to convince her, but she knew in her heart that she should have known. That there was some clue she had missed. And Xander was going to pay the ultimate price for.
She gently squeezed his hand, hoping and praying that she would feel some kind of response. But the only response was from the heart beat monitor with its never ending chirping.
"I'm sorry Xander. Please be ok. I didn't mean to hurt you." As she spoke the words, part of her flashed back to the time she had used him in the Bronze to make Angel jealous. It made her feel really small, having used her friend that way. Or the time he had asked her out, when he had so obviously opened his heart to her and she had spurned him harshly. All of the times he had done some small little gesture for her just because of the way he felt, and all of the times she had acted so callously.
The tears increased. Her frame was racked by the sobs. This was all her fault. She squeezed his hand gently. "Why can't it be me laying there. He doesn't deserve this. Its not his fight. Its not fair!"
A hand gently squeezed her shoulder. Buffy looked up to see Giles standing there. He set the two cups of coffee down and sat down across from his youthful charge. "Buffy, do not say that. Xander knew the risks when he made the decision to stand by your side. He knew the odds were great that he would never survive past graduation. But he picked up the mantle and stood proudly by your side. Do not diminish his choice by second guessing it, and him. Be proud of him. He is a good man and I am proud to know him." Giles leaned over and hugged her. He was so proud of his charge. Of course he knew she was upset, but he would do whatever he could to assist her through these troubled times.
A knock at the doorway interrupted them. As he rose, Giles saw two uniformed members of the Sunnydale police force standing there. He patted Buffy on the shoulder and went out in the hall, closing the door behind him.
"Is there something I can assist you with gentlemen?"
"Yes, I'm Sergeant Green, this is Patrolman Stewart. We would like to ask you some questions about what happened to Mr. Harris."
Giles began to weave a tale of a street gang which had attacked them. Xander had thrown himself in front of one of the individuals who was about to impale Buffy on a section of wood and had taken the wound himself, thereby saving her.
As they closed their notebooks and put away their pens, a doctor stepped past them and entered Xander's room. Buffy looked up when she saw him enter. Her face showed her concern, her guilt and her worry for her friend.
"Hello young lady. Keeping your friend company? That's good you know. Its been shown that people tend to recover faster when their friends talk to them."
"I'm just worried about him. He's my best friend. I don't want to lose him. He means so much to me."
'More than you are willing to admit, even to yourself I think.' The doctor smiled at her. "Well, I can tell you this, we're going to do our best to make sure that he pulls through. But I need to run some tests and check him over and it would be best if I could do so in private."
Buffy looked as if she would argue for a moment, but conceded and got up. Kissing Xander on the forehead she left the room.
The doctor closed the door behind her. He rolled up and sleeves and looked down at the still form of Xander Harris laying in the bed. "Time to get to work my boy." And with that, he began.
Buffy stepped into the hallway in time to watch the departing forms of the two police officers going down the hallway. "And what did they want?" she asked as the door clicked shut behind her.
"Same old same old. You know if the SunnyDale PD ever got a clue, it would have to be a sign of the apocalypse..."
"Buffy, how many times have I told you..."
Together they finished the sentence. "Never joke about the apocalypse on the Hellmouth."
Buffy began to smile, then broke down into tears again. "I just can't get that moment out of my mind. I should have know!"
Giles reaches for her, but a flash of light from Xander's room startled them both. Instinctively, Buffy opened the door, and was shocked at the scene she saw before her. The so-called doctor, who had seemed so friendly to Buffy a moment before, was now standing above Xander. His right hand was covered in a golden flame and he was pressing it on Xander's chest. Arcs of energy could be seen passing in waves over his body. As she watched, Buffy heard in horror a sound recognized by almost everyone. The sound of the flatline.
End Chapter 4