Chapter 33

Spike was waiting with everyone at the hospital. Willow and the others came outside when they heard the gunshot. They waited with Spike for the ambulance to arrive. He was the only one that rode with her to the hospital. The others arrived in their own cars and Xander decided to be the one to call Joyce because Spike was too shaken up to do it. Joyce arrived minutes later, with Dawn and Harmony. Giles agreed to give them all a ride over there since Joyce didn't think she could handle driving right now. It was about an hour later and the waiting was making all of them crazy. Buffy was taken into surgery and they haven't found out anything yet. Joyce finally saw the doctor walk over to them and she got up to greet him. "How is she doing?" She got right to the point and the doctor took a deep breath before he spoke. Everyone's attention was now on him.

"She lost a lot of blood. We were able to remove the bullet, but it was pretty close. If the bullet was a little more to the left, there is a chance we would have lost her. She's stable right now, but I'm afraid she has slipped into a coma. We have high hopes that she will awaken. It could take days or maybe weeks, it's really too soon to tell. I've done all I can for her, it's up to Buffy now." He explained and Joyce placed her hand over her heart as she felt tears in her eyes. She couldn't believe that her baby was in a coma. Giles put his arm around the distraught woman.

"Thank you, doctor." He said because he didn't think Joyce was up for anymore talking. The doctor gave him a nod and was about to walk away, when a quiet voice stopped him.

"Can we see her?" He turned to look at the blonde man that spoke and realized that he was the one that came into the hospital with the young woman. He nodded as he looked at all of the pained faces around him.

"Yes, of course. I'm only allowed to let at least two people in at once, but you all may see her. She's in room 730." He stated and gave them all a small smile before he walked away. No one knew what to say next and Giles looked at Spike.

"William, could you go with Joyce? You two should be first." Spike looked at his father when he spoke and nodded. He then stood up and went over to Joyce. He could see that she was trying hard not to cry and he felt the same way. He only took her hand and they both headed to Buffy's room.

Joyce couldn't stop the tears from falling now as she saw her daughter lying so still in the hospital bed. She went over to her side and sat down in the chair next to the bed. She grabbed Buffy's hand and looked at her pale face. She has never looked so lifeless before and it terrified Joyce. Spike just stood there as he watched Joyce talk to Buffy. He didn't know what else to do. He could hardly even look at her without getting choked up. Buffy was always so full of life and he couldn't stand seeing her like that. "You'll come back to all of us, sweetie. You're my brave girl." Joyce finished as she let Buffy's hand go and stood up. She walked over to Spike and gave his shoulder a squeeze. "I'll let you talk to her." She told him as she looked at her daughter one more time. She then walked out of the room and Spike was left alone. He took a deep breath and walked over to Buffy, sitting in the seat that Joyce was just in. He did the same thing and grabbed Buffy's hand. He placed a kiss on her knuckles and looked at her. He tried to keep his tears in, but he was fighting a losing battle.

"I'm so sorry, Buffy. This is all my fault." He said in a hoarse voice as he gave her hand a squeeze. "If we just went inside when you wanted to, this wouldn't have happened." He tried to control himself to say what he had to. "Your mum is right, love. You're very brave and I know you'll come back to us. You have to because I don't know what I'll do without you. It should have been me. I should be the one lying here right now, not you. You're such an amazing person, you don't deserve this. You have the biggest heart of anyone I know." The tears were blurring his vision now and he didn't care to wipe them away. "You'll come back to me and when you do, I'm never going to let you out of my sight again. You'll start to get sick of me." He said with a small smile. "All you have to do is open those pretty eyes of yours, baby. I know you can do it." There was still no response from her and Spike didn't know what else he could say. All he could do was pray that she would come back to him.

It was really late and everyone already came in to see Buffy, most of them went home by now. Spike was still by her side and it didn't look like he would be leaving anytime soon. Giles placed his hand on Spike's shoulder and he looked up at him. "I will be taking Joyce and the girls home now. You should come with us, son. You need your rest." Spike shook his head and moved his eyes back on Buffy.

"I'm not leaving." Giles let out a sigh and tried to reason with the young man.

"William, it's not healthy for you to be here all night. There's nothing more you can do right now. You need to come home." Spike just shook his head again and Giles wasn't even sure if he heard him, until he looked back at him with a more determined expression on his face.

"I'm not leaving her." Giles figured there was nothing more he could say, so he only nodded.

"Alright, I'll see you in the morning then. Please, try and get some rest." Spike nodded and was glad that Giles wouldn't argue with him anymore. Buffy was in the hospital because of him, there was no way he was going to leave her now. He was going to be there when she woke up.