Two hours later the three teens and their mentor were still in the waiting room of Sunnydale General Hospital, having heard very little as to Buffy's condition. Giles had told them that on the way here, the paramedics had hooked her up to a machine to get her to breathe, but she had not woken up.
They had tried Buffy's mother several times, both at work and at home, and had finally gotten ahold of her just five minutes earlier. She had been devastated to learn of Buffy's "accident" as they had called it, and was on her way to the hospital at that very minute.
Giles was pacing around the room, while Willow sat in a chair with her head buried in her hands and Xander comforted Cordelia on the couch. They knew that Buffy was receiving a blood transfusion and that she was undergoing surgery to repair her arm, but that was all. Everyone was worried because Giles had heard one paramedic say to the other, under his breath, that she would be lucky to survive.
Just then, Buffy's mother burst through the swinging doors leading in from the parking lot and immediately cried "Where is she?"
All three teens stood up slowly as Giles went over and placed his hands on Joyce's shoulders, looking her directly in the eye. "As far as we know, she's still in surgery. We haven't heard anything yet."
"Is she- is she...okay?" Joyce whispered.
Giles, not wanting to lie to the poor woman, but also not wanting to devastate her, realized he had to go with the truth. "She- she lost a lot of blood. They're doing everything they can for her. The most we can do right now is pray."
Mrs. Summers' face crumpled in a mask of despair. "Oh God," she moaned. "Buffy."
Fearing that she was going to collapse, Giles led her over to the chair Willow had just vacated. Everyone crowded around and then stared down at her, wondering what to do.
Buffy's mother finally removed her face from her hands, and that was when they saw the tear tracks down her face. "Wha- what happened?"
The others glanced nervously at each other, no one really knowing what to say.
Xander, realizing that Willow would have trouble starting a lie on her own, and that Cordelia was clueless as to what to say, started the story. "We uh, well, we kind of um, heard at school today that, uh, some kids who hang out on the streets, might be looking to hurt Buffy, because, because-"
"Because they thought Buffy had looked at them funny," Willow added in, saving a very grateful Xander.
"But I don't think Buffy even knows who those kids are." Cordelia had to throw in her two cents worth.
"So we went to Mr. Giles here, for some advice on what to do," Xander continued, "and he suggested that we all go look for her. So we did. And when we found her...when we found her-"
"It was already too late," Giles whispered.
Mrs. Summers eyes brimmed with a fresh batch of tears upon hearing this news. She struggled not to let them spill, but was unsuccessful. Willow, unable to resist, moved over and leaned down to hug her. Mrs. Summers gladly accepted the comforting embrace of her daughter's best friend.
"Mr. Summers?"
Everyone looked over to see a doctor wearing surgical scrubs standing by the doorway. As they all turned to face him, Buffy's mother shot Giles a look which asked for an explanation as to the doctor's address. Giles, feeling his face become bright red, said simply "We couldn't get ahold of you, and she needed treatment...."
The light dawned on Joyce's face, and she said softly, "Thank you." Then, turning to the doctor, she said in as strong a voice as she could muster, "I'm *Mrs.* Summers. Do you have news on my daughter?"
"Well," he said, glancing at each of them in turn, "she made it out of surgery. We patched up her arm, which will heal in time. But obviously that wasn't our main concern. Your daughter is very lucky to be alive. I've never seen anyone with as much blood loss as Buffy. She had to have two separate blood transfusions. What worries us most is her condition right now- she's in a coma."
"God." Buffy's mother clapped a hand over her mouth before managing to ask, "Is she going to be all right?"
"We can't say right now. From what we've been told, she was clinically dead for several minutes and she wasn't breathing for several more minutes after that. Her brain was deprived of oxygen for at least five minutes, and anything over three is critical. Buffy may wake up, but we can't say for sure that there isn't going to be any brain damage."
This news seemed to deflate whatever courage Joyce had been using to hold herself up. She nearly collapsed and Cordelia and Xander had to help her over to the nearest chair. Willow followed them, but Giles stayed behind.
"Dr.-" Giles quickly glanced at the man's nametag, "Bartlett, I was wondering...would it be possible for her mother and perhaps the rest of us to see her?"
Dr. Bartlett sighed heavily. "I'll allow her mother in, but for now I'm going to ask that the rest of you remain outside. Maybe tomorrow you can see her, but she is in intensive care and the possibilities for germs are, well, great as I'm sure you probably already know."
"Yes, yes, I understand," Giles assured the man. "You *will* let us know when we can see her?"
"Of course," the doctor replied, before walking over to speak with Buffy's mom, who had by now composed herself a bit. Helping her up from the chair, he guided her back behind the swinging doors so she could see her little girl.
"Why can't we see her Giles?" Willow asked as she, Xander and Cordelia approached the Watcher.
"The doctor thinks it best that until her condition is a bit more stable, she be exposed to as few germs as possible."
Giles could tell that his answer did not satisfy any of the teens, but none of them said a word.
Instead, they all settled themselves in for a long night of waiting.
* * *
"Why did Angel run away?"
It was almost four o'clock in the morning and everyone was sprawled out in various couches and chairs. Buffy's mother and her father, who had arrived a few hours after Joyce called him, were staying in a room close to Buffy's that the hospital had arranged for them.
Willow's question seem to bring everyone out of their thoughts. They knew they should have been getting some sleep, but had also accepted that as an impossibility right now.
"He looked as though he was in a lot of pain," Giles murmured, pulling himself into a sitting position from where he had been slouching in a char.
"But why? Why would feeding off of someone cause him pain? I doubt it's because he still loves her. He's a demon. I wonder if it was something more physical? Something like...."
Giles, who quickly picked up on Willow's line of thinking, leaned forward in his chair and said excitedly, "Something like poison!"
"Uh guys," Xander interjected, "maybe I'm missing something here, but last time I checked my vampire handbook I remember reading that that poison doesn't really affect vampires."
"You're correct," Giles said dejectedly, slumping back in his chair. "Poison might give Angel a twinge, but definitely not the pain that we saw."
"The only things that can hurt vampires are what?" Willow began listing them off. "A stake throught the heart, which would kill them, sunlight, holy wafers, or-"
"Or holy water!" Xander practically yelled.
"And there wasn't any holy water in Buffy's supply of stuff, remember?" Willow said excitedly.
"So what did she do, spray Angel with the stuff before he started feeding?" Cordelia interjected.
"No, he would have felt it long before that," Giles said thoughtfully, stroking a hand across his chin. "The pain he felt came on in an instant. But it happened to him after Buffy was already unconscious, so Buffy couldn't have sprayed it on him...."
The thought came to Willow out of nowhere and she knew with horrifying certainty that it had to be true. "Not *on* him, Giles, *in* him...."
The others stared at Willow as they tried to comprehend what she was saying.
Quickly, she elaborated. "The vial we found, in her room, remember? We thought it was poison, and we weren't entirely wrong. But it wasn't poison for *her,* it was poison for a *vampire!* But- but it obviously didn't work...." Willow's lower lip began to tremble.
"So she ingested it as insurance against vampire attacks?" Xander asked. "But why would Buffy care *how* she died? We've already determined that she was going to kill herself, why not just let the vampires do it?"
"Because she knew the vampires wouldn't settle for merely killing her," Giles said slowly, as the realization came to him, "they would have to turn her into a vampire as well. That's what Angel was going to do when we saw him, but the holy water in his system caught up with him. Buffy must have known that it would take a few minutes for the holy water in her blood to affect a vampire, and must have hoped that that time would be enough for it to kill her but not to turn her into a vampire as well."
"You mean she actually planned this as her death?" Willow asked, horrified.
No one answered. No one needed to. The truth was there before them.
As the seconds ticked away into minutes, and the minutes into hours, they could do nothing but sit there and hope that Buffy failed in her plan.
* * *
The morning came and went and still they received no word on Buffy's condition. Giles had to hope that the old adage "No news is good news," held true for these circumstances.
The teens' parents had stopped by the hospital this morning after the three had finally called them and confessed that they were not all sleeping over at one of the other's houses. Their parents had wanted to stay with their children, but assured that they were all in good hands with Mr. Giles, they left after extracting promises from their offspring that they would call them at work should there be any change in Buffy's condition.
The police had also stopped by earlier and taken down everyone's statements. The Slayerettes had decided to stick with the story they had told Buffy's mother, even though they knew it was a flimsy excuse at best.
It was getting close to 2pm when Mrs. Summers finally emerged from behind the swinging doors, looking absolutely haggard. Everyone quickly stood when she entered, fearing the worst.
"How is she?" Giles whispered.
"The same," Mrs. Summers replied, as everyone let out an audible sigh.
"The results of the CAT scan came back this morning," Joyce continued, "and as far as they can tell, there's no discernable brain damage. All activity appears normal. They've said it's quite a miracle."
"So does this mean she'll be waking up soon?" Willow questioned quietly.
"They honestly don't know," Mrs. Summers said wearily, pinching the bridge of her nose. "She could wake up five minutes from now, or tomorrow or next week, or...never." The last word was nothing more than a whisper.
"Never?" Xander gulped.
"Some patients just never recover from that kind of trauma," she explained. "Right now she's still in shock from the whole experience, and it's basically shut down her whole system. The doctors are hoping that it will be only temporary, but the fact that she hasn't started breathing on her own yet isn't a very good sign."
Buffy's mother took a deep breath before continuing. "To complicate matters, no one knows exactly what happened, and that makes treatment somewhat difficult. They're guessing by the looks of it that she was, she was...attacked with some sort of sharp object and just left there to bleed to death. Were it not for you she might have..." Mrs. Summers gulped. "I'll never be able to thank you all enough for finding her when you did."
Everyone was silent as the guilt settled in: if they had only gotten there moments earlier, Buffy might be awake right now instead of laying half-dead in a cold hospital bed.
"How *did* you manage to find Buffy?" Mrs. Summers questioned, breaking the silence.
"It was...luck," Giles said reluctantly.
"Well, I can't tell you how grateful I am that you did." As the others once again remained silent, Mrs. Summers said softly, "She's been moved out of ICU into a private room, and the doctor has said you can see her if you want. Her father's in there right now, but if you wait about five minutes, you can go up. I'm going to go get some coffee. I won't be gone long."
With that, she exited through the doors which led to the downstairs cafeteria.
A few minutes later, the four of them found themselves entering Buffy's sterile hospital room. All gave a silent gasp as they were confronted with the ghastly image of the Slayer.
As it had been when they had found her the night before, Buffy's face was completely devoid of color except for the black circles which ringed her eyes. Even her lips were white. Her right arm was covered in thick layers of gauze, which they could see was beginning to be tinged a faint red, a testament to the severity of the wound.
Buffy lay deathly still in the bed with what seemed to be hundreds of tubes coming out of her body and attaching to strange machines. Only the tinny blipping of the heart monitor reassured the others that she was not dead.
Giles slowly approached her and ran the back of his hand lovingly down her cheek. "Oh Buffy," the others heard him whisper, anguish apparent in his voice.
It was at that moment when the tears began, at first just occasionally trickling down everyone's cheeks, but then after a minute or two, beginning to come in torrents. Everyone struggled to suppress them, but all failed.
It was only the appearance of a nurse who told them their visiting time was up that made them leave Buffy's side.
Retreating to the waiting room, everyone began their silent prayers.
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