ONE NORMAL LIFE / TWO EXTRAORDINARY LIVES

CHAPTER 42 – RISKING MY JOB FOR A GOOD CAUSE

“Did you say his wife had been complaining?” Angel asked.

“Yes, she was just here to see him yesterday, right before I got assigned as his doctor, before I transferred him.

“What did she look like?”

“Blonde, I think. I never saw her, the nurses did.”

“Buffy!” Angel thought angrily to himself, and now she was calling herself his wife! He’d wondered about her thesthese years, never a phone call or anything. Figures she’d get wind of dear old Spikey coming back. His wife? Well, he’d see about that!

“Get him out of there tonight. I don’t care what you have to do, only keep him alive and get him out. I’ve got a couple of guys who will be around to collect him. You just tell me what door you’re going to bring him out from,” Angel said, thumbing through his rolodex.

“It could be risky for me, I may not be able to go back, you know,” Dr. Polydefkis said, thinking of his nice life he’d just set up here.

“You do this and I’ll give you a $50,000 bonus and a jet out of here to anywhere you choose. Hell, I’ll even buy the apartment from you, always wanted to visit the Windy City.”

The doctor thought for a minute, “Very well. There’s a basement service entrance in the back of West Pavillion, it’s not used at night, trucks deliver to there during the day.”

“Sounds good. I’ll call you back with the time in a few minutes.”

Dr. Polyds les leaned back against his camel colored leather couch with his hands behind his head thinking. If they wanted him around shift change that would be good. There were more nurses, but they were usually preoccupied, giving report, and other things. Chances are they wouldn’t pay much attention to him up there. And hopefully by the time that the new nurses took over, they wouldn’t know about the change in the patient’s charts. He only hoped that the nurses on evenings and days had also not noticed it and passed it along to the other ones.



8:30pm

The cell phone rang, “It’s Angel, get him to that door between 2:45 and 3:00am. No later, understood?”

“I’ll have him there, Angel.”

“And I need him alive. That’s important.”

“Don’t worry. He’ll be alive. He may not be conscious, but he’ll be alive.”



9:00pm

Buffy and Dawn sat in Amelia’s living room. They’d been there for about an hour, after having gone to Medici’s for dinner. Dawn had liked it, and had even bought a small, framed picture for her apartment back home. She’d moved out of the dorm last year and was now living on her own. Of course, Hank was paying the rent until she was out of school. It had actually been cheaper than the dorm, so he hadn’t minded.

Buffy had spotted a small drawing of a woman in the woods, standing overlooking a clearing below. She thought it sort of looked like her from the back. She bought it for William. It gave her hope.

It reminded her the first time Spike had taken her on the trail and she’d seen the desert far below and off in the distance. It wasn’t too far from the tree where they’d…and where he’d carved their initials. She had gone there often at first, after he had ‘died,’ but then, she’d stopped going there altogether; avoiding that trail, inor oor of other ones, until the end of last ng, ng, when all of a sudden, she’d found herself inexplicably drawn to that spot. She’d just thought that it had been her mind allowing, with the passage of time, for her to finally be able to face ‘the tree’ without the grief. Now she wasn’t so sure that’s all it had been.


“I can’t wait to see Willow,” Dawn said, “I haven’t seen her since they pulled up and dropped us off at Hank’s five years ago. Never even got to England,” she said, wistfully.

“I haven’t seen her either. At least you kept in contact, I hadn’t even talked to her for a couple of years until a few months ago,” Buffy said.

“I wonder if she’ll look different,” Dawn said.

“I don’t know. She might. Little older, like all of us, except me, of course.”

“Of course,” Dawn said, rolling her eyes.

“Do you ever talk to Xander?” Dawn asked.

“I haven’t for a really long time. I suppose Willow does. I just sort of got the impression he was glad to be the living that normal life he’d always had visions of in his head. I mean, I did too, but it was more like wishing for something that I couldn’t have, being the slayer. But Xander, he always should have been the guy who got married, settled down, had a family. And now he does. I just don’t want to interfere with that by calling him and reminding him of…”

“Of you?”

“Well, yeah, me and all that I must represent to him. I think Xander is happy to leave all the demons, vampires, and witches…well, except for Willow, behind, or of the stuff of fairy tales. Don’t you think so?”

Dawn thought about it for a minute, “I don’t know Buffy, part of me agrees, but I think that it’s always going to be a part of Xander. I…I email him still.”

“You do?”

“Yeah. I used to have the biggest crush on him. Even bigger than the one I had on Spike,” she said, smiling mischievously at Buffy.

“I remember,” Buffy said, smiling back, “so how is Xander? Is he happy?”

“Yeah, he seems really happy. We mostly talk about what’s going on in our lives now, although once in a while, if I catch him online and we’re using Instant Messaging, they’ll be some “remember this,” and some “remember that,” but we try to stay in the present, mostly.

“I understand,” Buffy said, and she did.

“He asks about you,” Dawn said.

“Well, next time you talk to him, tell him I said, ‘hey,’ okay?”

“Sure,” Dawn said, and looked away.

“What?” Buffy asked.

“Why didn’t you let him and Giles know what was going on with Spike?” she finally asked.

“It’s because of the very reasons I just mentioned. Even if I told him Spike was alive, what do you think his reaction would be? Do you think that he’d be eager to see him? Think he’d be curious to meet William? Dawn, he never much liked Spike, and pretty much despised him that last year, even when he’d gotten a soul. The only reason he ever tolerated him was because I asked him to. It just went against everything that he thought he should stand for as a man, and I understand that and respect that, even if I don’t agree. I mean, he didn’t look and didn’t want to look at the whole picture from my perspective, and certy noy not from Spike’s. Why should I force that on him?” Buffy asked.

“And as for Giles. I’m afraid to let him know. I really am. William is helpless now. He’s not Spike and I’m afraid that Giles might want to study him like some circus freak. I don’t know. He tried to kill Spike not long before he…and he never, ever could see him as someone who was trying to become a good man, even though he went to get his soul returned. Giles just…didn’t want to see him that way, didn’t want to ‘feel’ any sympathy or empathy for Spike. And again, like Xander, I understand his reasoning, but in his case, don’t really respect it, and certainly can’t take a chance with him knowing that Spike’s alive. Does that help you understand?” Buffy said, looking at Dawn.

“Yes. I’m sorry, Buffy. I just…I didn’t think of it that way. I guess with Willow coming, Andrew knowing, you, me, Spike…Guess I was just looking for something of the feel from when we were all sort of like a family.”

“I get that, and you’re forgiven,” she said, smiling, “but for now, I’m all that William has. Pretend wife or not, I’ve got to get him out of there.”

June 12, 2008
11:00pm

The nurse looked up at the order on the screen and frowned. There had just been an x-ray ordered for William Worthington at 2:45am. She wondered why he needed an x-ray at all, yet alone at such a strange time. She searched his chart looking for something that was nagging at her. Hadn’t that chart been highlighted earlier in the night, along with some other patient’s saying that Dr. Polydefkis was not to see them alone? She called the head nurse over and showed her.

Lynn Russo looked at it, sure she’d seen that too, and now was having an awfully funny feeling not finding it there. She was sure that it couldn’t have possible been straightened out tonight, yet. It had been put on the charts early in the evening, and now it was off. Well, she’d tell the midnight shift to make sure that Polydefkis wasn’t alone with any patients, anyway.

She looked at the order for the x-ray. It was for William’s elbow. She knew he’d been unconscious practically the whole day, so it wasn’t like he’d been complaining about it. She read that it had been hurt in the move coming down last night, when an orderly jerked it to restrain him. Well, that was true, but why order an x-ray at that time of night in x-ray department? When they had a machine they could bring upstairs? This had something wrong written all over it.


Friday

June 13, 2008

12:05am

“What the…?” Leroy said, as he looked at the online chart of William Worthington.

“Hey, someone’s here,” Dawn said, as she heard the buzzer.

“Who is it?” Buffy asked.

“Leroy.”

“Hey, come on in, can I get you something to eat or drink?”

“No thanks. Listen, something’s going on, I don’t know what, but you know how you told me how the administration was going to put all those notices on Dr. Polydefkis’ patient’s records so that he couldn’t see them alone, over prescribe, etc.?” he asked Buffy.

Buffy nodded, beginning to get that feeling in the pit of her stomach again.

“Well, it’s not on there. But it sort of looks like it was amended, know what I mean? Like it was changed back? Never-mind, just a certain way we have of knowing when orders have been changed. Oh, and also, there’s an order for him to go down to x-ray at 2:45am. The x-ray lab usually only does x-rays for ER patients or patients needing emergency surgeries. Doctors don’t schedule regular patients that time of day, they’d wait until morning. That’s why I came over here, something’s going on and you might want to let Dr. Turner know or whatever it is that you’re gonna do. Not even sure I want to know,” he added.

Buffy just looked at him with a combination of thanks and fright in her eyes.

“Oh, what the hell, ladies! What do you want me to do?”

“I don’t know? Can you get us up onto the floor? I’ve got to know if William is alright. More than that, I’ve got to get him out of there! Tonight!”

Leroy looked from Buffy to Dawn and back again.

“I’m so gonna lose my job,” he thought, if this doesn’t work right.

“Come on ladies, get your stuff, we’re going back over to the hospital!”

Just then Buffy’s cell phone rang. It was Willow.

“Hey, Buffy, I just landed. Where am I going?”

“Willow, I’m so glad you called. Something is going on with William, at the hospital, right now...I think that they’re trying to move him out tonight!” she said, as she walked out into the night with Leroy and Dawn,” meet us at the hospital. Down in…”

She looked at Leroy.

“Have her meet us over by the outpatient entrance.”

She told Willow she’d find her as soon as she could, over by the outpatient door, then hung-up.

“What do you mean, someone’s trying to get William out of there tonight. Do you mean Dr. Polydefkis?” Leroy asked.

“Yes, among others, that’s what it looks like,” Buffy said.

“But why? What did he do? Hey, I’m not helping some criminal or some international terrorist group am I, because, Leroy don’t play that way!”

Buffy stopped, “Leroy, there’s no way I can tell you the whole story. No way you’d even believe it or understand it. But one thing I can tell you with perfect clarity is that you are helping a good man, a man who has saved countless, innocent lives. People never even knew what sacrifice he made, but…that’s the only truth I can tell you,” she said, looking him in the eyes.

He looked back at her. He didn’t know why the hell he’d involved himself in her and William’s problems, but he just couldn’t walk away now.

“I believe you, Elizabeth. I don’t know why, I doI do. Just wanted to know for sure that I was risking my job for a good cause, for good people,” he told her.

“You are, he is, and I thank you from the bottom of my heart,” Buffy said.

“Yeah, well you’d also better call that Dr. Turner back here if you know what’s best,” he added.

“Dr. Turner, sorry to disturb you…”

Buffy told Dr. Turner what was going on and where to meet them. Same place as Willow.

And now, for getting up to 8 West!” said Leroy.

END CHAPTER 42