Chapter Twenty Seven
Author's Note: Thank you to Johanna, sara and Tiney1981for the reviews. I had to take a little break form writing the last chapter. It was hard and kind of emotional but I am glad the feedback was positive.
I hope everyone likes this chapter. Remember, feedback and comments are always welcomed. LA
"Are you sure?" Angel asked sitting in the green chair next to Buffy.
"Yeah, you probably shouldn't stick around while the doctor is examining me," Buffy began to explain as she looked at the white linen on her hospital bed. "She's going to take a look at the new bruises and cuts before-before she does the rape kit thing. They-they are doing it to co-co-collect evidence," she continued as her voice began to drift off. Her eyes filled with tears yet again.
Angel began to rub her arm. There wasn't much he could say in terms of comforting her. It had been a little more than six hours since she called his house looking for Xander. Xander was out and had left his cell phone on the kitchen table. Angel knew that Buffy was in trouble so he took his place at the police station.
Once he arrived at the police station and saw Buffy he wanted to cry. She was covered in dried blood, bruises and cuts. She had looked disheveled. Her appearance had saddened Angel. He wanted to cry but he knew he couldn't. He had to stay strong for her. "All right. I will be waiting in the waiting area if you want me for anything at all. If you want me ask someone to get me, okay?"
"Angel, you have been here or over eight hours, please go home and rest and get something to eat. I can call my parents to get me."
Angel just shook his head. "I'm not really hungry or tired. I'm not going to leave you here. If you are hungry I could-," Buffy interrupted Angel with more tears escaping from her emerald eyes.
"I'm fine. I-I jus-just want to get this over with." Buffy stopped talking and began to play with the linen sheet until her eyes met Angel's. "Actually, if you wanted to come back with a drink, I could really sue one."
Angel stood up. The drink was the first thing she had asked him for since he'd picked her up at the police station. "All right. I'll be in the waiting area with something for you." Angel paused. He saw the doctor and nurse outside the door talking. He was going to leave the room any minute but he had to ask Buffy one thing before he left the room. "Wou-would you like me to call your parents?" He asked in a loud whisper.
Immediately Buffy shook her head. She wanted to be the one who told her parents about her privet hell. "No, I'll talk to them later."
A few seconds later the doctor and nurse entered the room. Angel quickly left Buffy's side and went outside to catch a breath of air. He was only going to be out there for a brief moment, just incase Buffy wanted him to return to her room. He sat on the bench next to the vending machines. He had put his head in his hands and cried. He had been with Buffy that day for over eight hours. The police officer had asked Buffy more questions before they left the police station. Before physically evaluating Buffy she was mentally evaluated.
Angel let out one loud wailing sound for his friend. He thought that no one deserved to go through the nightmare that Buffy had gone through but lest of all she deserved to encounter it. Buffy was the most sincere, the most gentle and then the most kind human being that he had ever known. She had put people's feeling ahead of her own.
Then his sadness shifted to anger. He thought about Riley and how he was in one of the rooms in the hospital. Angel thought that Riley was nothing more than a monster in a man's body. He wanted to march into his room and kill Riley for the way that he treated and the way he hurt Buffy. While wiping his eyes he took a deep breath and regained his composure. He stood up and was ready to march in to the information desk and ask which room Riley was in. He was so infuriated that he was ready to murder Riley Finn for all of the pain he caused.
Then Angel stopped. He came to a realization. He thought that if he too put all of his anger into physical rage, then he would be no better than Riley. Buffy really needed a friend at that most critical moment in her life. She didn't need a loser who'd resort to violence to get his own way.
"Thank you Angel for everything. Thank you for being with me today and driving me home," Buffy told Angel as he parked in front of her house. As he shut off the engine, she noticed a light on in the family room. Again, tears formed in her eyes.
"Hey, shh, don't cry, what's wrong?" Angel inquired as he put an arm around Buffy.
Buffy began to wipe her eyes and she stared at the room with the light on. "Look at me, I'm all bruises and cuts. I-I have to explain this to who ever is away, tonight. All I want to do is to start to move on. I want to go to bed." She told Angel has she looked at him. His chocolate eyes were the only facial features that she could see because of the darkness. "Angel, I don't want to tell them. I don't want to tell them alone."
"Shhh," Angel repeated. "You won't be alone, I'll go with you," he promised as he wiped her tears away.
"Angel, no. You have done so much already. You were with me for over eight hours today and you have to rest. I couldn't ask you to do more for me. You have done enough."
Ignoring her words, Angel simply said, "You can sit in the car as long as you want but let me know when you are ready for us to go inside."
After a few minutes of silence, Buffy wiped her face. She took seat belt off. She placed her hand on Angel's and offered him a half smile and simply stated, "thank you."
Angel got out of his car and closed his car door. He walked around to Buffy's door and opened it. She walked out onto the side walk and waited the few microseconds while Angel closed her door. They slowly began walking on the path that led to the stairs of her porch. They climbed the stairs in silence and reached the door. After unlocking the door, Buffy stepped over the threshold with Angel right behind her. She closed the door silently. The area around the door was dark. She and Angel stood in the darkness.
"Buffy, I didn't know you were coming home tonight, hello Angel," Rupert said as he picked up his glasses and laid down his book. He smiled at what he thought was a pleasant surprise.
Still standing in the little bit of darkness, she looked at Rupert through the darkness. "This wasn't planned trip. I-I kind of need to talk to you and mom about something."
"Your mother isn't feeling well and is asleep. I could wake her." Rupert offered.
"No, I'll just talk to her in the morning." She said before she shifted her focus to Angel.
"Buffy, why don't you and Angel have a seat in the family room and tell me what on earth is going on," Rupert suggested a little worried.
Angel was the first to walk out of the darkness and into the light of the room. Slowly, Buffy followed him looking down at the floor.
Even in the dimly lit room, Rupert noticed Buffy's bruised face. "What happened? Were you in some kind if an accident?"
Buffy took a seat on the couch on the opposite side as Angel. Rupert sat in a chair adjacent from the couch. "No, well-I-I guess there was an accident involved." Buffy began not really knowing how to phrase the happenings of the past six months. "It didn't start off as an accident. You know Riley, right?"
"Yes, of course, was he involved with the accident?"
"Oh, yes, well, all right, this is what happened. Back in October we went to a party and we both had something to drink, a little, but I didn't think it was that much. Well, anyway, that night we-we kind of argues and got into a fight. We fought, well; Riley yelled and he-he-that was the first night that he hit me."
Rupert looked at the young woman before him that he had considered his own child. He could only whisper, "The first time?"
Buffy nodded. "He-he hit me a lot. He has beaten me up and stuff." Another dam of tears broke free from her green eyes and escaped down her cheeks. "He also has ra-raped me a few times. Today he came after me and was going to hit me again but I was-I was tired of just sitting there and taking the blows for stuff I had no control over. He came after me this after noon bu-bu-bu," she couldn't finish her statement. Rupert walked over to his step daughter and over to Buffy. He cradled his daughter in his arms while she sobbed uncontrolled for a few moments
Breaking the embrace, Buffy wiped her tears and continued right where she left off. "But today I fought back."
Rupert interrupted her. "And that son of a bitch went after you?"
Buffy was a little startled. She had never heard Rupert use that kind of language before. "No-well, he did but I fought back. I-I hit him and he fell down the stairs. When the paramedics arrived and took him away, he was unconscious," she finished as she began to cry again. In between sobs she told Rupert that she was taken to the police station and then a physiatrist and then the hospital.
After comforting Buffy for a few more minutes, he suggested that she should take a bath and then go to bed. He also explained that Dawn wouldn't disturb her since she was over a friend's house for the night.
She nodded in agreement. She said good night to Rupert and gave him a hug. She then stood in front of Angel.
"Thank you for everything to night. I don't know what I would have done without you there with me."
Angel hugged Buffy and said good night to her. Both he and Rupert watched as she made her way up the stairs.
After she reached the top they heard her walk to her bed room and into the bathroom. They soon heard water from the bathtub.
"Tell me, did you know about this before tonight?" Rupert asked.
Angel thought quickly about New Year's Day when he had seen Buffy on the beach and she had broken down and told Angel about Riley's abuse. Angel decided not to say anything because he didn't want to add fuel to Rupert's fire. "I haven't really seen Buffy a lot lately. She had called Xander tonight but he wasn't around and left his cell phone at home. He has said in the past that he doesn't like Riley and how she has changed since they started dating. He said that he suspected Riley of something but every time he brought it up with Buffy she would just deny it and try to make Riley look like a great person."
"You know, I had a bad feeling about him when he came to dinner that one time. There were so many signs during her winter and spring breaks. She has lost a lot of weight. Oh god, the signs were there all along, why didn't anyone pick up on this?" Rupert asked broken hearted.
"I think that even if you did confront her she would have made up a lie and stuck up for him. That's what Xander said she always did," Angel tried to reassure him.
Rupert just shook his head. "I don't know. Angel, thank you for everything you have done tonight. Words can't express how much Joyce and I both appreciate you being there for Buffy tonight."
"I really wish I could do more for her Mr. Giles."
"Well, unfortunately I don't think that there is much for any of us to day at this point. Within the coming days just be there for her. That's all that you can really do."
Angel nodded. The two men exchanged conversation a little longer before they heard footsteps coming down the stairs. It was Joyce.
"Hello Angel. How are you?"
"Fine Mrs. Giles, yourself?"
"All right just a little confused. Why are you here?"
Rupert jumped in to save Angel the time. "Angel was actually just leaving. Joyce, I think we need to talk."
T six thirty five am the telephone rang in the Giles' household. Buffy refused to get it. She could hear Rupert in the other room chatting. She figured it was a relative of his calling from England so she rolled over and went back to sleep. Little did she know that even thought she did not participate in the conversation on the phone, that call would change her life forever.
Buffy walked down the stairs and into the kitchen. Dawn still wasn't home and she didn't know where William was. She saw her parents sipping their coffee at the table. She tried to enter the room quietly and unnoticed but that didn't work. Joyce saw her daughter and rushed over to her. Tears formed in both women's eyes. Joyce couldn't find the words to speak. Rupert did.
"Buffy, please sit down, we have to talk."
"Alright," Buffy said as she separated from her mother and sat down.
"Early this morning we received a phone call from the police station."
Buffy sighed and interrupted. "What do they want? They asked me so many questions yesterday. They don't want to talk to me again do they? Please tell me they don't want to talk to me again."
Rupert shook his head. "No, they called to give us some news." Rupert paused and looked at Buffy and then at Joyce then back at Buffy.
"What is it?" Buffy asked not wanting to wait any more.
"Buffy Riley died last night."