Chapter 3

Willow

Alex sat tensely beside Willow's bed, watching over her, waiting for her to wake up fully. Willow tried to remember what had happened before, you know, before she woke up in a hospital bed with an IV in her arm.

Willow remembered throwing up yesterday night in the stream, and Alex driving them down to the hospital. Willow realized that after collapsing in the hospital she must have passed out… and after that it was a blur of unrecognizable faces and Alex's voice begging her to be okay. Willow stirred, and Alex's hand tightened on top of hers as he sat up, stretching after staying in what looked to be an uncomfortable position for a long period of time.

"Hey babe," He whispered, "How you feeling?" he asked, gently rubbing his thumb along my knuckles.

Willow mentally checked herself over and groaned.

"It feels like I've been hit by a truce repeatedly, and then thrown into a particularly nasty vat of acid." she turned her pounding head to look down at him. "What happened? How long have I been out for?" she asked as she tried to reach reached over to the bedside table for a glass of water, but the IV stopped her, tugging her arm back before she could get even close. Alex saw what she was trying to do and passed the glass to Willow.

Willow drank it gratefully, not realizing how thirsty she was until she had been presented with a glass of water.

Whilst Willow was drinking, Alex began to explain what had happened.

"When you passed out, I picked you up and ran straight to the nearest doctors that I could see. They were all calm and collected whilst I was freaking out all over the place." Alex's already tense jaw tightened even more as he went on with his story. "The nurses put you in here and hooked you up to an IV, telling me that you would wake up soon. They ran some tests and took some blood too, I think."

Alex anticipated Willow's next question before she had even opened her mouth to aske it. "You've been out for about four hours now, so it's night time." he sighed wearily and raised their joined hands to his mouth; gently kissing the back of Willow's hand, just below the needle for the IV. "God Willow, you don't know how much you scared me there. I told you we should have come here sooner!" He sounded a little exasperated, but mostly relieved than anything that she had woken up alright.

Willow smiled in reassurance. "Hey, I thought I told you not to worry!" she chided. "I'll be fine. I'll probably just be given some antibiotics or something and be sent on my way. What did the blood test say?" He shook his head. "Don't know. Either the tests haven't come back yet, or they haven't showed them to me. I'll go find them in a minute. Right now I just want to sit here for a while and see your eyes open." He leaned over and pressed a kiss first to the space between her eyebrows, and then again to her lips before sitting back down.

They sat there for a long time, not talking, just gazing into each other's eyes and occasionally touching one another's face. That's how the doctor, who had apparently been looking after Willow-although she didn't remember ever seeing the man before-, found them. He cleared his throat in the doorway, smiling indulgently down at them as he saw the scene he was walking into. "Ah young love," he sighed before straightening up and coming to stand at the foot of Willow's bed.

"How are you feeling, Willow?" he asked, genuine concern for me on his face. He must be really good at his job, thought Willow, to be so caring about a complete stranger. Alex sat a little straighter and looked a little sick as Willow explained in more detail about how her body felt. His hand had tightened convulsively on top of hers with each word, and she squeezed his hand back reassuringly.

To Willow's surprise, Dr Johnson, as his name tag read, began to smile a little more with each of her explanations. Willow began to review her original opinion of him as being a kind-hearted 50-something year old man. It appeared that he took pleasure in other peoples pain. By the time she was done her self-diagnosis, the balding old creep was out-and-out grinning.

Apparently Alex had also noticed the good doctor's cheerfulness at her pain, and was not afraid to show it. "What are you smiling about?" he demanded, sounding like he was barley controlling his anger.

Dr Johnson apparently liked the idea of being punched in the face, because he laughed. He redeemed himself somewhat when he apologized, though, saying: "Oh my, I am sorry! I must look quite insane, standing here grinning like a fool. Please except my apologies. And never fear, for the cause for my happiness will soon be revealed but first things first. We got your blood samples back Willow, and I was wondering why was your blood sugars were so low, my dear?"

Willow blushed, suddenly feeling very foolish. "Oh, err, that was my own fault. I didn't eat any breakfast this morning because I didn't want to be sick in the car."

Alex groaned quietly and leant his head against her shoulder, murmuring "oh babe. You should have eaten something." He straightened up and looked over at Dr Johnson "Is that why she fainted before? Because she hadn't eaten enough?"

The good doctor smiled again, and this time I noticed what a delighted smile it truly was, making his wrinkled face look about 30 years younger.

"Well," he said, "yes, your right. That is exactly why she fainted. It was because her body wasn't being supplied with enough energy… for the both of them." He smiled; "Congratulations" He added.