Trials and Complications

Part 16: Predicaments

"Hey Dr Samuel," Parker called down the hallway of the Sunnydale clinic and stopping the psychiatrist in his tracks.

Whipping around the man acknowledged, "Dr Abrams, hi. Oooh, nasty bruise," he noticed.

"It's nothing. Anyway I just saw the rota," Parker explained his voice laden with sympathy. "You’re up for a double shift."

"Yep. It’s gonna be a long day."

"I feel for you," the brunette sympathised momentarily before asking, "Hey, how’s Colette?"

"She’s great," Dr Samuel replied, in reference to his girlfriend of eight months.

"D’you know what you’re getting her for Christmas?"

Sighing, the young psychiatrist screwed his face up as if having only just remembered. "God, Christmas. How much time have I got?"

Laughing, Parker replied, "Three days. But it’s cool, 'cause I know this great place. It’s a few hours away but they do beautiful jewellery for half the price - special closing sale."

"That’s too bad," the taller man replied. "I’m stuck here the whole day."

As if thinking about it, Parker paused, eventually deciding, "You know what? You go. I’ll do your shift tonight. Go pick Colette up something beautiful and spend the rest of the day with her."

"You serious?" Dr Samuel asked, in disbelief.

"Yeah. I have no plans today, so why not?" the brunette replied. Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out a card and handing it to his colleague, told him, "Here’s the address."

Reading it, the man smiled. Shaking his head, he told his fellow doctor, "You’re a good man, Parker Abrams."

Smiling, Parker returned, "Send Colette my best."

"Will do," the older man assured, heading both away from the brunette and from the clinic's back exit.

"Hey, where are you going?" Parker stopped him.

"Just heading to hand in my beeper and tell Dina about the swap."

"Here, I’ll do it," Parker offered with an outstretched hand. "You just get outta here before I change my mind."

Handing the blue-eyed brunette his beeper, Dr Samuel declared, "I’m gone." Leaving the premises.

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Having just exited her car, Buffy was barely able to cross the road as she was met by her daughter who was running excitedly towards her from school.

"Woah!" Buffy called, upon the collision. She held the youngster. "How was the last day?" she asked.

"Good. Mom, can we give Tyler a ride with us?" Joyce asked, looking up at her mother and holding onto her friend, who had followed behind her.

"Hi Tyler. Where’s mommy or daddy?" Buffy asked the young boy.

"My mom’s over there," Tyler answered, pointing over to an approaching Mrs Thompson.

"Sorry to spring this on you, Buffy," the woman explained, reaching and joining the three of them. "I forgot that I was supposed to be giving the teachers here a talk now. Tyler’s dad’s at the house, so if you would just take him home, that would be so great."

"Can I stay at the Summers' house for a while though, mom?" Tyler interrupted.

"Sure," Buffy answered the question, assuring the boy’s mother, "It’s no trouble at all."

"Thank you so much," Mrs Thompson appreciated. "I’ll be there to pick Tyler up as soon as I can." She turned to her son. "Have a good time and behave yourself, ok?"

Buffy smiled as the child agreed, his mother thanked her again and rushed off. "Ok everyone, let’s go," the slayer announced, unlocking her car and making her way into it. Lifting her cell phone from the passenger seat to allow Joyce to sit down, she saw the message alert flash. Accessing her voicemail she listened as the clinic's secretary begged her to stop by the clinic. Sighing, the blonde slayer announced to those in the car, "Guys, we have to make a quick stop at the clinic, ok?" as she pulled out from her parking space and onto the main road.

Going through Sunnydale’s roads with moderate speed, within ten minutes, Buffy arrived at her workplace, parked her car and letting both her daughter and her friend out of her convertible, and locked it up. She entered the relatively newly built building and made her way to its reception.

"Oh, Dr Summers," Dina greeted with a relieved sigh, upon the psychiatrist’s arrival. "I was just about to start panicking."

"What’s wrong?" Buffy asked.

"Sorry to just call you up like that but we have a major problem. Dr Samuel just upped and left all his patients without even a word. Dr. Abrams offered to cover, but he has a pretty serious appointment he has to go to today." She continued to explain, "There are lots of patients in the waiting room with no-one to see them."

Looking around with her hand on her forehead, Buffy tried to think of a solution to the predicament, considering she was supposed to be baby-sitting. She turned to her daughter and guest. "Joyce, Tyler, you two wait here, ok? I'll be right back." She pointed to chairs next to the receptionists table and prompted them to each take a seat before making her way into her office. Sitting at her desk, the slayer picked up the phone and called the homes and cell phones of both Willow and Xander in turn. When met with no reply, she sighed and dialled the number to 'Greener's Gifts'. Preparing what she was about to say, she dishearteningly listened to the store's engaged tone. Buffy replaced the receiver and made another call.

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"Rob, you still on the phone?" Faith asked, walking out into the store from her office.

Covering the receiver, Rob told his manager, "Five minutes, boss, I swear," before continuing his conversation.

Rolling her eyes, Faith faced a customer asking them, "What can I do for you?"

"Just this," the customer replied, handing the brunette a gift she had picked out.

"Would you like this wrapped?" Faith asked her, looking behind the woman to see Dawn entering the shop.

"Please."

Handing the purchase to her assistant, Faith told him, "Rob, gift-wrap and ring this up."

Telling the person to whom he was in conversation to, "Hold on," Rob took hold of the photo-frame and wrapping paper, watching with a grin as Faith beckoned a brunette into her office.

Faith closed the door behind Dawn as she took a seat.

"How's it goin', D?" she asked.

"Good," the younger brunette answered. "I spent the day with Buffy today," she stated, going on to add, "All we did was talk about you."

"Why?" Faith asked. "B made it pretty clear to me the other day that it was over between us."

"That’s not the impression I got," Dawn replied her sister’s ex. "As far as Buffy's concerned, you broke up with her. Now all she's trying to do is get her life back on track."

"Well then I’m not gonna get in her way."

"Faith, don’t you see that getting back together with you is getting her life back on track? She knows it too; it's just that she's too damn stubborn to admit it."

Understanding Dawn’s aim Faith figured out, nodding, "But I'm not."

"No. You’re the clever one, who's going to make the first move and show her the way. Starting with dinner tonight."

"I've got plans tonight."

"Cancel," Dawn pleaded. "C'mon. It’ll be just the four of us. A nice family dinner."

"I’ll think about it," Faith told her, picking up her mobile phone. "Right now, I need to go and pick up a new battery for this. It keeps dying on me."

"Great, I’ll go and get started on dinner. It’s going to be great," Dawn tried again, leaving the office and walking into the store.

Faith smiled at the brunette’s enthusiasm. "Wait up, I’ll give you a ride back to your place," she called to the younger brunette, looking around for her keys.

Covering the bottom of the receiver to the phone on which he was engaged in conversation, Rob leaned over to talk to his boss. "What would Buffy say?" he asked, smirking and shaking his head.

"About?" Faith returned, busy lifting objects on the counter and searching beneath them.

"You doing that hot brunette in your office."

Looking disgusted at the younger assistant, Faith replied him, "Man, that was B's sister."

Returning her look with one of his own, the blonde exclaimed, "You’re doing Buffy’s sister!?!"

Looking at her assistant in disbelief of the magnitude of his error, Faith merely ignored the question, deciding that an explanation would take too long. She located her keys and followed after Dawn.

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Buffy huffed as she heard the 'engaged tone' at 'Greener's gifts' for the fourth time. Dropping the phone, she stood up and walked out into the foyer of the clinic to see the children in conversation with Parker.

Turning to follow Joyce's distracted gaze, the brunette turned to face an approaching Buffy.
"Hey," he greeted. "What’s going on?"

About to answer, Buffy stopped, her attention diverted to the commotion erupting as the receptionist attempted to calm one of the clinic's patients.

"Hi Liberty!" Buffy called, remembering the patient's name. "You just go into my office; I'll be there in a minute." Watching the patient comply and make her way into her office, the slayer turned around.

"Buffy, what are you doing here?" Parker asked, the stress clearly showing on his colleague’s face.

"Dina called me in and told me that there was no-one to cover today."

"What?" Parker asked, looking around and locking eyes with the receptionist.

"I’m sorry, Dr Abrams, I know you asked me not to call her," Dina replied. "But you really do need to get that eye checked out and I didn’t want you to have to cancel your appointment if we had another option."

Calming the psychiatrist, Buffy added, "It’s ok. Really. I don’t mind. It’s just that I was supposed to be looking after the kids now and I really don't want to just leave them here for hours with nothing to do."

"Well if you want I could drop them off at your place," Parker offered. "Is there anyone there I can leave them with?"

"No, I’ve tried there already. But you can leave them with Tyler's dad at number sixteen twenty seven."

"Sure, no problem," Parker told her. "C’mon kids," he motioned.

"Thanks."

"Don’t mention it," the brunette replied.

Buffy watched as he took her daughter by the hand and lead the children outside. Smiling, she returned to her office.

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Glancing at the clock, Buffy struggled to focus on her hysterical patient. "So then when I turned sixteen, I found that I had to get a new pet to keep myself occupied," the woman babbled, forcing Buffy to interrupt.

"Listen, Kayla," the slayer started. "Maybe you should take sometime to collect all of your thoughts. It's just that you’re paying for this session by the half hour-"

"Oh, that's ok," the young woman told the slayer. "I really don’t mind." When Buffy could find no other excuse, the woman continued. "So where was I?" She asked, continuing on to answer herself. "Oh yeah. Well when I was fourteen, I-"

"We already covered your fourteenth year of life," Buffy was forced to remind her. "Why don’t you tell me how your life is now?"

"Now?" Kayla asked. "Well now, it’s ok. My brother and I still live together. But he’s getting married in spring. His fiancée wants a real spring wedding. I told her that fall weddings were the best. They’re always so beautiful and the decor can be real earth tones-"

Her mind on other things, Buffy was alerted when her patient’s beeper began to buzz.

Picking it up, Kayla read the message. "Thank you for seeing me, Dr. Summers. I should leave you to get on with your things...”

Utterly relieved, the slayer stood up from her chair. Standing to go and shake her patient's hand she was taken aback when Kayla rushed out. Too tired to question the rash behaviour, Buffy glanced through her office window, noticing that it was getting dark. Leaving the room and locking up, she walked up to the front desk, calling the attention of the clinic's secretary.

"That was the last one," she told the woman.

"Yeah. Thank you so much. If you don't get doctor of the month this time, you'd better sue."

Buffy smiled. "Bye, Dina."

"Bye," Dina replied. Suddenly remembering to look through the sheet of messages on her desk, she called out, "Oh, a Mr. Giles called. He said to tell you that he should be arriving in town tonight."

"Thanks," Buffy told her, putting on her coat. She left the building and walked out to her car. Entering it and starting the engine, she drove along the dimly illuminated streets, tired from her day’s shift. Driving for a while to return to her home in Rovello drive, the slayer parked in her drive-way, locked up her car and walked across the street. Ringing the doorbell of the house bearing the number sixteen hundred and twenty seven, she waited until the door was answered. Faced by a slightly puzzled Mrs Thompson, the slayer greeted the older woman before telling her, "I’m here to pick up Joyce."

"Hi Buffy. Joyce isn't here," the retired teacher told the young blonde. "Should she be?"

"Oh. Did someone pick her up already?"

"I’m not sure. I only just got back. Let me ask..." her voice trailed off as she made her way inside. "Come in!" she called to Buffy before screaming, "Honey!"

"Yeah," came the reply of a male voice as Mr. Thompson followed the call into the reception room from the kitchen. "Hi Buffy," he greeted. Turning to his wife he asked, "Baby, what’s wrong?"

"Do you know who came to pick up Joyce from here?"

Thinking back the man replied, "Er, Joyce wasn’t dropped off here. Some guy just came and dropped off Tyler. I haven’t seen Joyce today."

"Oh," Buffy uttered, as if mistaken. "That was a friend of mine. He must have dropped Joyce off at my place."

Relieved, Mrs Thompson smiled.

"I'm sorry to have bothered you two," Buffy apologised.

"No problem, dear," she was replied as she was followed to the front door.

Embarrassed, "Bye," was all the slayer could reply as she was let out of the Thompson household.
Making her way across the street, she user ker keys and let herself into her home. Immediately noticing a large brown envelope which obstructed the door's closure, she picked it up and shut the front door. Subconsciously slipping her key underneath the flap of the brown casing and running it through, tearing the paper, she walked into the lit living room, calling out for anybody.

Hearing her sister’s call, Dawn made her way from the dining room and followed Buffy's voice to the living room.

"I made dinner," Dawn announced, causing the slayer to turn.

"Oh. Great," Buffy replied absent-mindedly, whilst pulling out the content of the envelope in her hand. She immediately recognised the document the envelope had concealed and felt sick as she heard her sister ask a question she dread, "Where’s Joyce?"


TBC....