"Miss?" asked a nurse. Buffy turned to her.
"Huh?"
"I don't know… your friend, the young man you brought in."
"Xander," she said. Willow was watching them.
"Yes. Do you happen to know… any of his information?"
"His name is Xander," Buffy said. "He's my friend. They're going to fix him, right?"
"I'm sure they're doing everything they can," said Nurse…
"Ratched? Your name is Nurse Ratched and they let you work here?"
The woman frowned.
"Buffy," Willow said stepping up to the nurse. "Go call your mom, okay? I'll take care of this."
"Mom… why?" Buffy asked. She realized she was in a daze.
"Buffy… you're missing half your shirt, and what you've got is soaked in blood," Willow said.
Buffy looked down at her exposed, blood-soaked torso in shock. "Whoa," she said.
"There's a phone at the nurse's station," Nurse Ratched said. "You can use that one."
Buffy walked in a zombie-like state to the nurse's station. "She said I can use this phone," Buffy said to the man behind the desk. He took one look at her and nodded.
Buffy dialed her home, waiting for her mom to pick up.
"Hello?" asked a light, feminine voice.
"Mom," Buffy said. "It's me."
"Oh, hi, Buffy," her mom said. "Is patrolling going okay?" Despite her best efforts, Buffy's mother could not hide the tension in her voice.
"Mom, something happened," Buffy said. She explained as best she could, without tipping off the nurse, what had happened. Made up a story on the spot, that she hoped meshed with Willow's.
"Oh, sweetie," her mom said when she had finished. "What can I do?"
"I need a shirt," Buffy said. "Mine's kinda ripped. Willow could probably do with one, too."
"Of course, honey. I'll be there as soon as I can."
Buffy hung up the phone and went to sit down next to Willow. They sat in silence, neither looking anywhere but at the floor. Twenty minutes later, Buffy's mom showed up with clean clothes and hugs for both of them. She talked to the doctor and found out that Xander was still in surgery, and expected to be so for some time. Buffy and Willow found a couch to curl up next to each other on, and waited, watching either the floor or the clock.
It ticked too slowly.
"Here." Willow looked up and saw Oz holding some coffee for her. She smiled sadly, and graciously accepted the coffee. She hadn't even realized that Oz showed up. Willow looked around, and the entire gang, Cordelia, Faith, Giles, even Wesley, was there. When had that happened?
Willow poked Buffy, whose shoulder she had been leaning against. Buffy, who had been asleep, began to wake up but was clearly in no condition to have a conversation yet.
"What happened?" Willow asked, turning back to Oz.
"He's still in surgery," Oz said. Willow's eyes flicked up to the clock. It had been over four hours. She had basically been unaware of everything for at least two of those.
"How'd the… thing go?"
"Went fine," Oz said. He sat down in the chair next to her couch and stroked her arm lovingly. "Box is history."
"Good," Willow said. "That's good." She sipped her coffee. It wasn't very good, but Oz had made it the way she liked it. She smiled at him appreciatively.
"Excuse me," a nurse said, approaching the group. She was sort of a dumpy woman, her hair frazzled, no makeup, and a look of exhaustion about her. She'd probably been working for hours on end. "Is there a guardian for Mr. Alexander Harris here?"
"Um, no," Giles said.
The woman sighed. "Damn. I can't find them anywhere."
"They're not coming," Giles said.
"You mean they're out of town?" she asked.
"No," said Giles. "I do not."
Willow got angry. She knew perfectly well that his parents weren't showing up because they'd have to show something along the lines of caring for their son, and that meant leaving alcohol long enough to get sober. Her fists clenched, turning her knuckles white. Oz covered one of her hands with his. His touch calmed her, though only just.
"Well," said the nurse, clearly uncomfortable with the situation. "You're his… um…"
"We're his family," Willow said, her eyes daring the woman to contradict her. She felt Buffy's arm wrap around her shoulders.
"Of course," said the nurse. "In that case, I should tell you folks that Mr. Harris lost a lot of blood, and at times like these we ask family and friends if they would be willing to donate. It helps us keep our stores up, in case of emergencies like this one."
The entire group kind of looked around at each other.
"I can leave this sheet here," she said. "You can decide individually whether to donate. I'll come back in about thirty minutes?"
"Of course," Giles said. "Thank you."
"Is there any word?" Willow asked. "On… how he's doing?"
"I think they should be coming out of surgery any minute," said the nurse, smiling at her. "I'll be sure to direct the surgeon to you."
"Thank you," Mrs. Summers said. The nurse nodded and walked off.
And Willow officially got more nervous. Her hands started shaking. "Hey," Oz said, soothingly. "He'll be all right."
"How do you know?" she asked.
Oz shrugged. "He's a fighter. And he won't, uh…" Oz cast a glance towards Faith.
"Oh," Willow said. "Oh, right. Yeah."
They sat silently, Willow's hand resting in Oz's. Around the Scoobies, the hospital was a noisy, bustling place, but silence seemed to surround them as they waited for the surgeon to finish working on their friend. After about twenty minutes, a tall man with dirty blond hair, wearing what were obviously fresh scrubs came up to them.
"Excuse me," he said. "Um… is someone here for Mr. Alexander Harris?"
"We all are," said Buffy's mom. Willow shook Buffy until she woke up. Buffy woke immediately, and seemed very rested.
"Oh," the man said. "Lucky him. My name is Dr. Joseph. I was –"
"Dr. Joseph what?" Buffy asked.
"Buffy," Willow whispered, shushing her friend.
"Joseph is my last name," the man said with a smile. It was a comforting smile, Willow thought. Just the type of smile a man who was in his position should have. Comforting, reassuring, and not at all like a man possessed by a hyena. Which was about the worst Willow figured it could get.
"Anyway. Mr. Harris was brought into surgery about four… four and a half hours ago, with a… well, we'll skip the medical jargon. His leg was badly cut, and the cut nicked his femoral artery. If not repaired quickly, this would have killed him. Luckily, we were able to stop the bleeding, and repair the damage to the artery with great speed. He lost a significant amount of blood, but we were able to replace most of that.
"The surgery went about as well as can be expected. The wound was clean, and we had a clear point of entry. A significant portion of our time was spent repairing muscle and tissue damage. I'm afraid Mr. Harris will, unless he has some cosmetic surgery, have a fairly nasty scar on his leg for the rest of his life. But other than that, we expect him to make a full recover – oh!"
Willow had tackled the man in a bear hug.
"Willow," Giles said, softly. "I believe the doctor would like to continue breathing."
"Right," Willow said, releasing the man from her grip. She smiled shyly and backed away from him. Just about everyone, including Dr. Joseph, was laughing at her, but she didn't care. She could feel her grin stretching her facial muscles. "Can we see him?"
Dr. Joseph smiled. "Mr. Harris is still in recovery, and will be for some time. I suggest you all go home and get some sleep, and tomorrow you'll be able to visit him."
Willow frowned, but her happiness at Xander's condition broke through whatever disappointment she had at not being able to visit him.
"Thank you, Doctor," Giles said.
"Are you his father?" Dr. Joseph asked.
"Um, no. His parents are… well, they're not here. And we are."
"I see," Dr. Joseph said. Wesley walked up to join the two men. "Well, I don't know about his, um… we have a payment program –"
"All of his bills will be taken care of," Wesley interrupted. "You needn't worry."
Giles looked at the man in surprise, as did everybody except Cordelia and Buffy's mom.
"Oh," Dr. Joseph said. "Excellent. If um, I could have a nurse get your information…"
"Of course," Wesley said. "Point me to the right person."
"I'll walk you," Dr. Joseph said. The two men walked off discussing God only knew what.
"Yes, well," Giles said, turning to the rest of the group. "That went about as well as can be expected. I suppose we should all, though, take Dr. Joseph's advice and return tomorrow."
"You're probably right," Buffy's mom said. "Willow, Oz, can I offer you a ride?"
"Oh, I've got my van," Oz said. "Which I'm gonna have to clean out now."
"Faith?" Buffy's mom asked.
"Oh, no, I –"
"I'm driving her," Cordelia said, her arms folded across her chest. Looks of surprise shot at her from every angle, including from Faith. Nobody defied her though.
"Very good," Giles said. "Well… a good night to all of you."
The group dispersed, and Willow noticed Cordelia was completely dominating her conversation with Faith. She wondered what they were talking about.
"So how long has this thing with you and Xander been going on?" Cordelia asked. They were walking away from the rest of the group and towards her car.
"There is no –" Faith started to say.
"Obviously, there is something between you," Cordelia said. "And denying it won't make it any less true. I may pull the dumb cheerleader part, but I'm not stupid. That pregnancy test wasn't for Willow, it was for you."
Faith stayed silent.
"Well, that's what I'm going to believe whether you admit it or not. I don't know why you'd let other people ruin their reputations for you, when all they're trying to do is help you, though."
They arrived at Cordelia's Chrysler Sebring, and the cheerleader unlocked the car. Faith slid into the passenger seat silently, closing her door behind her. Cordelia gracefully slipped behind the wheel, checked her mirror – or probably checked out herself in her mirror – before starting the car up. She flicked the radio off.
"So, what, did you and Xander have a fight or something?"
"None of your business," Faith said as Cordelia pulled out of the hospital lot.
"What was it about?" Cordelia asked. "He probably did something really stupid, didn't he? What, like, he was ogling some other girl's ass? He did that all the time. Especially Buffy."
"No," Faith said. "That's not it."
"What? Did he cheat on you like he did me?"
"No," Faith said. She fiddled with her fingernails, paying absolutely no attention to how or where Cordelia drove.
"Well, what? Tear your favorite skank shirt? Get dirt on your slutty leather pants? What?"
"He just. He was an asshole," Faith said, giving in to Cordelia's questioning. "He was only after one thing the whole time, and I knew it, and I trusted him anyway. It's my fault for trusting him."
"Only after one thing?" Cordelia asked. "What, you mean sex?"
"Yeah, sex," Faith said. "Fucking. Screwing, Doing the nasty. That's all he wanted. Just like every other asshole out there."
Cordelia started laughing. "Oh my God," she said, her voice rising. "That is so precious. You actually believe that, don't you?"
"You sayin' he didn't?"
"Want sex?" Cordelia asked. "Of course I'm not. I'm sure he absolutely wanted to have as much hot, sweaty, Slayer sex with you as he could possibly manage."
"Yeah," Faith said. "I know. You probably had to deal with the same thing."
"God, did I ever," Cordelia said. "Guys were always in it for the touch. Like it's my fault my boobs got this big. Xander was different though. Not initially, but…"
"Yeah, right," Faith said.
"No, I'm serious," Cordelia said. "He grew up a lot while we were dating."
"You're telling me he didn't want to screw your pretty little head off?" Faith asked.
"No," Cordelia said. "I'm saying that's not all he wanted. He's not like that. Not anymore."
"Bullshit."
"Not bullshit," Cordelia said. "Trust me. I've had plenty of guys who were just interested in my body. I know what it's like. You need to understand something."
"What?" Faith asked. She was already tired of this.
"Guys want to screw you. They wanna press you up against a wall and do it until you're screaming."
"Oh, gee, thanks for that insight."
"But," Cordelia said. "Just because they want sex, doesn't mean that's all they want. I don't see you understanding that."
"What the fuck are you –"
"Faith, of course Xander wants to have sex with you," Cordelia said. "You're a Slayer. You're almost ridiculously hot. Hell, if I were a guy, I'd want to do you. But if all he wanted was sex, I guarantee there's easier marks. Easier ways to go about it than ruining his best friend's reputation in the school – who, by the way, wouldn't have done that unless she knew Xander was sincere about this thing. Xander's really not one for picking difficult challenges."
"But he cheated on you," Faith said.
"Yeah!" said Cordelia. "Because he thinks with little Xander, probably more than he should, but definitely less than most guys."
"Why are you defending him?" Faith asked, legitimately confused. "He cheated on you."
"Yeah, and he saved your life tonight. Or at least, that's what Giles said, and Giles isn't prone to exaggeration. Plus, the whole pregnancy thing."
"How did you –"
"Like I said," Cordelia replied as she pulled into the parking lot. "I'm not stupid. Xander's worst nightmare would be to raise a kid the same way his parents have – yelling, drinking, never getting along. As much as I'm still pissed as hell at him – and I am, believe me, I still want to make him miserable sometimes – he doesn't deserve that."
Faith stayed silent for a moment, thinking over what Cordelia had said. It made a certain kind of sense. And even when she knew, absolutely one hundred percent knew that Xander had only been after some tail, she'd still felt comforted by him. Still felt like he cared. And she wasn't sure even Bobby DeNiro was that good an actor.
"Well, we're here. You can get out now," said Cordelia.
"One thing," Faith said as she opened the door and slid out. "You two never did it, did you?"
"No," Cordelia said. "Why?"
Faith leaned down and looked Cordelia right in the eye. "You called it little."
Faith grinned at having gotten in the last shot, and stood there watching as Cordelia sped off. She then turned and saw – the Sunnydale Motor Inn.
"Fuck," Faith said. Cordelia didn't know she had moved.
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End Chapter 14