3:38 pm
July 31, 1999

Kira hummed happily to herself as she sat in the visitor's lounge, playing with her Lego blocks. The daytime nurses usually didn't mind her being out there, so long as she gathered up her things and went back to her room when some people came in to see someone. She smiled to herself as she put the finishing touches on a barn for her horse to live in.

"Well, you seem to be in a better mood today."

She looked up to see Dexter, the janitor who worked around the fifth floor. He was an older man, but he treated her like a real person, unlike most of the other people she saw. She nodded, looking down at what she was building.

"Yep. I feel better."

It was true. Just the thought of having someone willing to talk to her, who wasn't scared of being around her, made everything seem brighter. The pills still made her sick to her stomach, and this morning she had spent an hour or so being all sweaty and trembly for no reason that she could figure out, but she was able to put that aside. Faith liked her. She had a friend, again. Dexter pushed his rolling mop bucket across the width of the corridor to the Nurses station, leaving her sitting there amid the chairs. She heard him greet the women on duty, and their reply carried to her clearly.

"Dexter. Have you seen that Brit doctor up here lately? The woman?" His response was quieter, and she missed it. There needed to be some windows in her Lego barn, so the horse could get lots of fresh air. She hated being cooped up inside all the time, and knew that he would too.

"I'm just saying that it's strange, that's all. I had to put all her tubes back in again! Now, either that girl is thrashing around something awful when I'm not looking, or something strange is going on."

Kira looked up. Were they talking about Faith? Dexter mumbled something in that soothing way he had, but it didn't seem to help. The nurse was upset, her voice loud and bitter.

"What I think, is that Miss high-and-mighty is doing it. She's taking them out every time she's up here, just so we have to put them back. Oh, it sounds odd, sure, but you weren't here last time me and her got into it." Kira crawled on her hands and knees to look around the edge of the doorway. Dexter and another Nurse were standing there listening to the woman go on. It was one of the lazy ones, who hardly did anything unless they had to.

"It's her patient, so why should we have to do the extra work? She wants us to keep a log of her vitals and responses, every two hours! Why?! I mean, she's healthy enough, someone who's not going to wake up. It's not like she's going anywhere."

The janitor nodded, leaning up against the counter.

"So do you do it?"

The nurse snorted in amusement.

"Hell no! I just write in the entries and change the numbers around just a bit every once in a while. What's the difference? I already do enough work around here, I'm not going to hop every time she says hop. That's why I think she's pulling the tubes on her vegetable down there. She's trying to get me to pay more attention to that girl than to the rest of them. Or, if I tell her about it, she's going to try and blame me for it. She's already said that she's going to get me fired, and I told her 'good luck'!"

The other nurse looked concerned.

"So... what are you going to do?"

"Nothing, that's what. If she thinks she can push me into doing something I don't have to do, she's dead wrong. I'm not going to get pulled into her little game. I'm supposed to feed her and change her IV bags once a shift, and that's what I'll do, same as with the rest. No special treatment. If anything is pulled out, I'll just make sure it's back in at the end of my shift, and I won't say a word. Sooner or later she'll get tired of messing with me, and stop her foolishness."

Kira went back to where her blocks were piled in the center of the small room. She didn't understand how some grownups could be so dumb, but if it kept Faith out of trouble, she didn't mind.

She couldn't wait until the older girl woke up again, so she could tell her all about it.

* * * * *

Faith was still trying to free herself from the IV's when a small head peeked around the edge of the door. The Slayer looked up, pretending to be surprised. She didn't want the little girl to know that, to her ears, even the lightest, most stealthy footsteps sounded like someone using a brick to pound on an oil drum.

"Well, hi again."

The dark-haired child smiled uncertainly, edging into the shadowy room.

"Hi Faith. Can... I come in?"

Faith nodded, looking back down at her forearm.

"Sure. I told you before that it's cool. I'm just working on getting loose, here."

The tubes were taped against her arm this time, and somebody had used about half a roll of tape to do it. It was awkward, but she'd gotten her other hand pulled across her body, using her fingernails to dig and tear at the tape. Kira came to stand beside the bed, watching as the older girl struggled.

"Almost... c'mon, just a little, ah, you fucking piece of--"

Faith winced, looking up at the girl through the black hair that had spilled forward over her shoulder. She tossed her head to flip it back, out of her face.

"Um, sorry, that slipped out."

The little girl giggled.

"That's okay, Faith." She bounced up and down on her toes. "Can I help?"

The Slayer looked back down, and shook her head.

"No, I've almost... got it!" She tore the tape away, gritting her teeth as it pulled some hair out of her forearm along with it. With a grimace, she pulled out the IV's, pressing her palm against her skin as the small wounds began bleeding. Kira's eyes went wide as she stared at the bloody needles that lay on the sheets.

"Yuck!"

She turned and ran to the doorway that led to the bathroom. The light in there came on, and there was a scrabbling sound. Faith sat there for a moment, looking at the spill of light on the floor, then at the darkness outside the window. She hoped the sight of the blood, and the needles, hadn't grossed out the girl too badly. She only looked to be around six years old, after all. That was too young to be seeing stuff like this. Well, she was too young to get dumped in the hospital with a fatal disease, too. Shit like that happened, she knew all about it. Seconds later, Kira came back into the room, clutching a huge handful of toilet paper. She brought it to the bedside.

"Here, we can use this to bandage it."

Faith smiled up at her from where she lay.

"It'll be okay. See?" She took her hand away. Blood was smeared across her arm, but the bleeding had already stopped. She took the paper from the girl and wiped it across her skin. Aside from a pair of fading red marks, there was no sign of the wounds.

"Wow."

Kira stared at the arm, impressed. Faith reached across and started on her other arm, which was similarly bound. The child watched as she tore at the tape.

"Um, are you feeling better now?" The Slayer turned her head and gave her a puzzled look, so she went on. "I came to see you, yesterday, and I couldn't wake you up. I shook you and shook you, but you just kept lying there." She looked down, a guilty expression filling her narrow face. "I was afraid you were dead. It kinda scared me."

Faith tore the tape away and pulled out the last of the tubes.

"Sorry about that. I was hurt pretty bad when they brought me in here, and it's taken me a long time to get this far." She used the toilet paper to wipe away the blood that oozed from the needle mark, then watched as it closed. "I'm getting better fast now, though." Turning to the girl, she pushed her hair back over her shoulder again. "It was, what, the day before yesterday when we talked?"

Kira nodded.

"Uh huh." She took a step back as Faith twisted around to put her feet on the floor. "You said it would be okay if I came back... it's still okay, isn't it?"

Faith was wiggling her toes, trying to get them to wake up. She'd spent so much time laying in this bed that she wasn't sure her feet knew what they were for, anymore. At the girl's question, she looked up.

"Absolutely, it's okay. In fact--" She stood up, wrapping the sheet around herself to cover her nakedness. "I think you and me can have some fun, tonight. Do you want to go do a little exploring?" She padded to the door, peering out into the hallway. Everything seemed quiet. The little girl came up and joined her, looking down towards the corner that hid the nurse's station.

"Sure!" Her voice echoed in the wide hallway, and she gave a start, continuing in a whisper. "Where do you want to go?"

Faith looked down at her, then reached out to chuck her gently under the chin.

"I'm not sure. Let's just start looking, and we'll see what's here to see. First though, I need to clean up; again." She wrinkled her nose up in disgust. "Damn, I never knew that being in a coma would mean you would be this... never mind. Anyway, after I do that, we'll need to find me some clothes too." She clutched the sheet more tightly around her too-thin body. "If I walk around in this, even the Sunnydalians might notice that something's up."

Kira nodded eagerly.

"I can show you where there are some that nobody is using."

"Great. I'll hit the shower and be back in a few minutes. Let me know if somebody heads this way?"

The little girl went to stand in the door, and Faith smiled at her back. That was a good kid. The feeling of having somebody on her side again, even if it was just a sickly little munchkin was... nice.

* * * * *

She exhaled and pulled at the same time, and the jeans reluctantly slip up the rest of the way. She fastened them, wondering why, if she had had to lose so much weight, more of it hadn't come off of her ass. Not that she was unhappy with hers; not at all. But whoever this girl was laying in the bed beside her, she'd been tiny. Long-legged, though, so at least the jeans were long enough. Kira was sorting through the rest of the stuff in the closet, having to reach up over her head to move the hangers back and forth. The little girl didn't seem to think it strange that they were stealing stuff from a person lying in a coma, though she had made a point of asking first. Faith had listened bemusedly as the kid politely addressed the unconscious girl in the bed, asking if it was all right if her friend borrowed some of her clothes. Apparently it had been, because Kira had turned and started searching through the closet for something that would at least come close to fitting the Slayer.

There wasn't any underwear; it seemed like whoever had stocked the closet hadn't been thinking of the little necessities, but there was a decent selection of street clothes. Along with something that looked very much like a prom dress. She shook her head.

"Twisted."

Of the tops that were available, none were really of the style that Faith would usually be wearing. Not that she was in a position to go shopping at the moment, of course. She settled on a black sweatshirt with an image of Snoopy on the front. His mischievous grin suited her mood, and Kira approved of her choice wholeheartedly. Shoes were another matter. There were two pair in the closet, but neither of them were even close to big enough. Faith had big feet for a woman; slightly embarrassing, but not something she could change. They replaced the spare clothes, and then looked through two more rooms before finding some slippers that fit her. Not an ideal solution, but better than walking around barefoot. Now that she was fully clothed, Faith looked down at the younger girl.

"Okay. I'm going to go have a look around. If I get caught by the wrong people there could be trouble." She looked down into those dark eyes and tried to ignore the pleading in them. "It would be better if you stayed up here."

Kira suddenly looked like she was about to cry.

"F-Faith... I thought you like me. I thought you were going to let me help you. I can, too. Please?"

Crap, she thought. She'd never been good around kids.

"I do like you; you're great. But it would be safer for you if you didn't hang around me. Weird shi-stuff, happens around me. Trust me on that one."

The little girl clenched her hands into tiny fists, and her eyes grew determined.

"I'm not afraid of somebody catching us. Not unless I'm by myself. I want to go with you."

Someone arguing with her usually resulted in her either blowing the person off, or kicking the shit out of them. For some reason, neither one seemed to be the right response in this situation.

"All right." Kira broke into a bright smile, hopping up and down with delight. Faith put a hand on her shoulder. "Whoa there, calm down. We'll just be careful, and if something happens, you run away and let me take care of things, okay?"

"Yep! Whatever you say! I'll be good, you'll see!"

The Slayer sighed, rubbing at her face with one hand.

Kids.

* * * * *