When You See Me Again

Chapter 14


“Does anyone know why hospital room walls are green? I mean almost all the walls in here are light green-not white, red, pink, or purple—but green.” Dawn quipped loudly in the waiting room chair. All eyes turned to her. She smiled a goofy smile. “Sorry, kinda worried. Never mind.” She muttered.

Buffy rolled her eyes and looked over to Willow, who sat next to Tara, and stood up, “Come with me. I want to see what’s going on with my mom.”

Willow nodded her head and took Buffy’s hand. They walked up to the nurse’s station and Buffy leaned over to talk to the nearest lady sitting there. “Hi, me again. I was wondering if there was any word on my mother’s—” She stopped as her gaze landed on the doctor coming up the hall toward them. “Never mind, here comes the doc.”

They all got up and followed Buffy who was walking to the doctor as she spoke.

The doctor, whose nametag read, Dr. Langley, cleared his throat. “Miss Summers?” Buffy nodded her head. “Hello, I’m Dr. Langley. I guess you can read that on my tag.” He grabbed at it lamely.

“My mother?” Buffy asked only lightly urgently.

“Your mother is doing well. There was a growth that had been missed on her previous Cat scans that we had to remove. It was pushing on her brain. Sorry if it seemed like it was taking too long, but we had to make sure we stopped the bleeding.”

“There was bleeding problems?”

“No, not really, but that part of your brain that was injured by the growth, is very sensitive. We were hoping there would be no complications, so we just took extra precautions.” He looked at her helpfully, waiting for another question.

“So, she’s going to be alright? Right?” She held her breath.

“Yes,” the doctor paused, “although for her sake, we can’t to keep her here for a couple of weeks to bar any complications that may occur.” Then again he paused, “With her full cooperation, of course.”

“Okay, thank you.” Buffy felt very small right then, knowing that this was no demon that she could fight off for her mother. “Can we see her?”

“She won’t be waking up anytime soon, but you could surely wait in the waiting room on the ICU floor for her.” He turned to walk away. “The nurses will be in to talk to her about the possible side effects as soon as she regains consciousness, so she may need you to be there for her.”

“Thanks again.” Buffy took the hand offered by Riley and walked over to the chairs.

Willow was giddy, “See? I told you she’d be fine! No more with the scared-Slayer, let’s go up there to see her.” Buffy looked slightly faint.

Dawn stood up excitedly, “I’ll have Giles go with me, and then you can come up with everyone else. I want to go see her now.”

Buffy numbly shook her hear and looked at her boyfriend as they walked away. Turning back to Wil, she smiled, “I think I need to talk to Riley. Why don’t you guys follow them up, and then we’ll be up with after?”

Xander leaned over, kissing Buffy on the cheek. “Good news, Buffster?” They exchanged as small smile, and with Anya, Willow, and Tara in tow, he took them to the elevator to had up to ICU.

“What did you need to talk about, Buffy?” Riley had turned to stare into her eyes as soon as the others were out of sight.

She looked down to the floor and looked at their feet. “Okay, this can’t be good if you won’t even look at me.” He turned her to look at him.

“I don’t love you.”

“I know.”

She looked confused, and tilted her head, a frown appearing on her brows. “What the hell does that mean?”

“I mean, I know you don’t love me, never have.” He smiled kindly, but his jaw was set firmly.

“I tried, you know, I tried to, but I can’t. I don’t even know if I can love someone who isn’t my mom or Dawn. I think that with the Slayer package, there comes a no-love clause.” She frowned deeper, “Or maybe living on the Hellmouth will do that. I don’t know.” She looked at him, most of the emotion stripped away from her, “I have to go, Riley. My mom and sister need me. I’m sorry.”

Placing her hands in her pockets when she stood, she headed over to the elevator to go up, never once looking back.


Joyce was awake when Buffy reached the fourth floor. Dawn and Willow were in the room, so she waited outside in the waiting room, leaning in close to Giles, resting her head on his shoulder.

Out of the blue, she announced quietly, “I love you Giles.”

That startled him, but not by much. He out an arm around her shoulders, “I love you too, Buffy.”

“Just wanted you to know, ya know?” He leaned in closer, his mouth in her hair, and pressed a kiss there.

Xander looked from Anya to Buffy and crossed the waiting room to sit on the other side of her. “Can I join the hug-fest too? I mean, over there, it look like Hugapalooza, and I really don’t want to miss this one.”

Buffy looked at her dear friend and reached over to hug him as well. “I wouldn’t let you miss it for the world, Xan.”

He pulled back and smiled. “Good!”

Willow and Dawn came out of the ICU, holding each other’s hand and smiling tentatively. “Your turn, Buffy.”

Buffy was released from the two men’s grasps and smiled bravely as she headed toward the room her mother was in.

Knocking lightly, she was greeted with a small, “Come in.”

Her mother was tied up to monitors with wires and tubes, which frightened Buffy more than anything ever had. Leaning down to her, she kissed her on the cheek. “Mom, you gave us a little scare, you know.”

Joyce smiled at her oldest and tried to sit up, which immediately she put a stop to. “I’m sorry, honey. I had headaches, but that was all, I swear.”

“It’s okay, Mom! Really, I just think of this as your excuse to not deal with Dawn for a while!” Good, Buffy, she thought to herself, keep it light.

“Really!” Her mother said, apparently not offended.

“Yeah, we have this pool going right now and you know what? I think they have ten to one odds that you’ll be dancing by dawn!” She smiled kindly to her mom, and placed a hand on her shoulder. “But if you do, then make sure you have doctor’s okay beforehand, Mom.”

Joyce placed her other hand on her daughter’s. “Don’t tell anyone, but this was my chance to escape inventory at the gallery,” she said jokingly.

The shared a small laugh. “You have lots of visitors, Mom, so I’ll send them back to see you, but feel free to kick them out if you’re tired, okay?”

“Yeah, I will.” She coughed and smiled to her firstborn, “When did you get all grown-up?”

Buffy looked at her with the tiniest bit of sadness just around the corners of her eyes, “I can’t tell you. Love you.”

“Love you,” came back at her as she walked out.