The Courtship of Buffy Summers

A/N: for those of you who read 'So Damn Domestic' as well, that story is going to be on temporary hiatus until I finish this one. There's only going to be like ten more chapters, probably less then that, and I want to get it finished as soon as possible. Anyway, enjoy your updates.
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‘What is taking so damn long?’ Buffy thinks and shifts again in the chair. She’s been at the hospital for three hours now, and she’s been waiting very impatiently. When her mother brought Faith in through the emergency room doors there were only three other people waiting to be treated. Faith was in so much pain and coughing up more blood so she got an express ride to through the back doors on a gurney. Buffy broke down when she saw them wheeling her away, and luckily her mom was there or she would have completely lost it.


When they arrived someone had asked them if they were Faith’s family and Buffy wanted to lie, but Joyce said they were just friends. Buffy couldn’t believe her when she said ‘just friends’. She wanted to follow the nurse and explain that she and Faith were more then friends, but her mom held her back. ‘Just friends my ass. I gave my virginity to her. You let someone deflower you when they’re just a friend. I love her, why can’t Mom just understand that?’ She’s…on edge to say the least and right now her worry for Faith’s health is making her a not so nice person right now.


They haven’t been told anything. None of the nurses or doctors have come out to check on them. They were told to leave right after Joyce said that they weren’t family, but Buffy refuses. ‘I’m not going to leave until I find out if she’s alright. I don’t care if I have to wait all night and threaten a nurse I am going to get some information. Even if it’s just someone telling me she isn’t going to die, that’s better then sitting here and freaking out.’ Buffy looks up when she hears someone walking towards them and her blood goes cold.


“What the hell happened?” Noah asks and he doesn’t look happy at all. Buffy and Joyce stand up from their seats and listen as Noah continues to rant. “I get back and the guy at the desk says some woman called saying my sister is in the hospital. What the fuck is going on? Where is she?” Noah looks like he needs to hit something and Buffy has a little bit of fear running through her body.


“We’re not sure what happened,” Joyce says in a very calm and reassuring way. ‘Good, she’s still acting like a mom,’ Buffy thinks and subconsciously stands a little closer to her mom. “She woke us up around two and it looked like someone beat her up. She has bruises all over, and her face was pretty swollen. She was having some trouble breathing, and there were some really dark bruises on her stomach, so I brought her in. The doctor’s won’t tell us anything because we’re not family.” Buffy watches Noah stomp over to the nurses’ station and she gets a not so good feeling in the pit of her stomach.


“I’m looking for my sister,” he says in a loud voice. ‘I wonder where he was all night?’ Buffy thinks and takes in his appearance. ‘His clothes look all wrinkled and he has a five o’ clock shadow and his voice sounds really rough. That’s a little weird because every time I’ve seen him he’s always clean shaven.’ “Her name’s Faith Lehane, she was brought in a couple hours ago.” Buffy watches as the nurse tells him to calm down, and surprisingly he tries. ‘I figured he’d be in a take-no-prisoners sort of mood.’


Mother and daughter sit back down in their seats and both of them sigh. Buffy leans against her mom and she relaxes a little when her mom wraps an arm around her. ‘I can’t believe this is happening. We had a stupid fight. That was it, just a stupid fight. I was going to tell her I was sorry for being so bossy, and then things were going to be better. We would go back to being touchy-feely and lovey-dovey. It wasn’t supposed to be this way.’ Tears start to roll down her cheeks and sniffles a little.


“Oh honey, Faith is going to be alright. She looked really bad, but I’m sure it was mostly just looks. If her rib is broken then they can fix it. There’s nothing to worry about. She’s going to be ok.” ‘Is she saying that just to make me feel better or is she saying it because she believes it’s true? Did any of that make sense? God, I think I’m losing my mind.’ No argument here. ‘Would you shut up? My girlfriend is back there, probably bleeding to death, and the last thing I need is shit from you.’


The blonde teenager is very surprised when Noah sits down next to her. She thought that he would sit away from her and her mother. Buffy looks over at him and sees something she’s never seen on him before. She sees fear, and worry, and she now knows why Noah doesn’t want her around Faith. ‘This is my fault. If I turned Faith down then we wouldn’t be dating and I wouldn’t have gone to the dance so Percy wouldn’t have been able to almost rape me, and Faith wouldn’t have been so pissed off, and she wouldn’t have gotten the shit beaten out of her.’


She slowly reaches out and puts a hand on Noah’s forearm. He looks over at her and she looks into his dark brown eyes. They just stare at each other for the longest time, and he has this look like she’s searching her eyes for something, and when he finally finds it his lips crack in a very tiny smile. Buffy understand exactly what he saw, and why he’s smiling. They finally have some things in common, they both love Faith, and they’re both worried about her. They’re little moment is interrupted when a doctor walks up to them.


“Are you family of Faith Lehane?” he asks, his voice doesn’t give anything away. The three of them stand up and Noah tells him that he’s her brother. The doctor motions for them to sit down, and when they do he pulls one of the empty chairs over and sits down in so he’s directly across from Buffy, even though he’s talking to Noah. “Your sister was in pretty bad shape.” ‘So Mom was wrong? Things are just as bad as they looked?’


“Her noise is broken, and there’s a lot of bruising that’s going to take a couple weeks to heal. She took a blow to her stomach that broke a rib, and ruptured her spleen.” ‘Oh my God. Is she going to be ok?’ “We were able to repair the damage without having to remove the spleen, which is good. She lost a lot of blood though, and we had to give her a transfusion. If the recovery goes well she’ll be out of here in a couple of weeks.” The doctor goes quiet and he looks like he’s going to deliver some bad news. All three of them tense up and prepare for the worst.


“Your sister has a blood alcohol level of .30 percent. Do you know where your sister would have gotten access to alcohol?” ‘Oh shit, please don’t look at me,’ Buffy thinks and leans against her mother. Noah shakes his head and he looks worried and pissed off at the same time. ‘I know how that feels,’ Buffy thinks and sighs a little. “We have her on morphine because of the surgery. She’s awake right now if you want to visit her, but it try to keep it short. She needs her rest right now.”


“I have a question,” Joyce says and Buffy looks up at her. ‘What the hell?’ “How did you perform surgery on her without a legal guardian here?” The doctor gives her a confused look so she explains. “She’s only sixteen, so legally you couldn’t have done any of that without someone signing consent forms.” The doctor looks very flustered and even more confused then before.


“A nurse checked her driver’s license and confirmed that she’s eighteen.” ‘Oh God, Faith has a fake. I probably should have said something about that sooner,’ Buffy thinks and she feels like she’s going to be sick, but she doesn’t really know why. “We’ll have to get you to sign the consent forms.” The statement is aimed at Noah, and he shakes his head a little bit. He also looks very frustrated.


“I’m not her legal guardian. She lives with a foster family. I’ll go call them now.” He gets up, looking like a zombie and walks off. Buffy looks at the doctor and he offers her a small smile. She doesn’t feel reassured at all. ‘I won’t feel better until I see Faith.’


“Can I see her?” she sounds hopeful even though she isn’t sure the doctor is going to let her back. To her surprise he stands up and tells her to follow him. She holds onto her mom’s hand as they walk down the bright, quiet halls of the hospital. The smell of anti-bacterial is everywhere and she hates it. She’s always hated hospitals, and this is the first one she’s been in since her cousin died.


“In a few minutes a nurse is going to come in and check her vitals, you should leave then and come back during normal visiting hours.” Buffy nods her head and stands in the doorway of Faith’s room. “I’m sorry but I have to go check on some other patients.” Buffy can hear her mom saying something but she can’t make out the words. All she can focus on is Faith lying in the bed. There’s a bandage thing on her nose to keep it in place while it heals, IVs in the back of her hands, and she’s hooked up to an EKG. The beeping noise and the sound of Faith’s deep, uneven breathing are the only sounds in the room.


“Honey, if this is too much we can come back later,” Joyce says and puts a hand on Buffy’s shoulder. The younger blonde shakes her head no and takes a couple of steps into the room. She freezes when she sees Faith open her eyes. She can tell by the unfocused stare that the medication is in full effect, and the brunette probably won’t be making any sense for a while. Buffy isn’t too sure what to do. On the one hand she wants to run to Faith’s side and never leave. But on the other she wants to give her some privacy. ‘If I know Faith as well as I think I do then she won’t want anyone to see her like this.’


“Hey B,” Faith says and tries to smile. Her voice doesn’t sound like her own at all. The damage to her nose, the tiredness from the surgery, and the side effects from the drugs is making her voice sound deeper and raspy. Buffy doesn’t like it, but she isn’t going to complain. This is her girlfriend for God’s sake. She needs to be here for her even if her voice and face aren’t very recognizable at the moment. Buffy snaps out of her little trance like state and walks over to the side of the bed. She holds onto Faith’s hand, and is extra careful not to disturb the IV.


“Hey baby. How are you feeling?” she asks and instantly regrets it. Faith tries to laugh but the pain from her bum rib makes her wince. Buffy shifts a little uncomfortably, and gently strokes Faith’s hair. She doesn’t really know what to do. She’s never had to comfort someone in the hospital before. “Sorry, that was a stupid question. You’re not in any pain, are you? ‘Cause maybe I can ask the nurse to give you some more medicine.” Faith shakes her head no and grips Buffy’s hand a little tighter.


“Don’t go. I just………wanna……..see you,” she says. She sounds really tired and her words are spaced out a lot, and it’s taking every ounce of Buffy’s willpower not to break down and start crying. She longs to have the old Faith back. The one who can go on and on about comic books, and about what two comic labels are crossing over characters and selling two editions of the book in varied-ink chromium covers. She sits down in the plastic chair next to the bed and uses both of her hands to hold onto Faith’s.


“I’m not going anywhere. I can stay for a few minutes but then I have to go.” She closes her eyes and lets out a little sigh. Buffy watches her for a few minutes until she thinks the other girl is asleep. When she tries to remove her hand from Faith’s the brunette’s eyes pop open, and she grips the blonde’s hand even tighter. She starts making a little whining noise, and Buffy has to fight not to panic. “It’s ok, Faith. I won’t go. I promise I’ll be right here when you wake up.”


‘I know I shouldn’t promise her that because the doctor is probably going to make me leave soon, but she probably won’t even remember I was here,’ Buffy thinks and gently caresses the back of Faith’s hand with her thumbs. ‘I don’t want to leave her. I want to stay with her until she gets better.’ Buffy holds back the tears as long as she can, but then she feels her mother place a hand on her shoulder and she can’t fight it anymore.


She lets out a wet, strangled sob, and her upper body loses its balance. She falls forward, and her forehead is resting on Faith’s forearm. Even though she’s very upset, she makes sure she isn’t blocking the IV running into the brunette’s hand. The sobs shake her whole body and she can barely breathe. She knows this is selfish, but she just wants Faith to take her in her arms until she stops crying. She knows that isn’t fair because Faith is the one who needs the support and the love. ‘And I’m going to be here for her. Whatever she needs I’ll give it to her.’