True Faith

Writing = fun.


*


Buffy followed Tru, a little cautiously, as they stepped off the elevator into a long, shadowy hallway. Everything was green and white tiled and stank of cherry-scented disinfectant. The smell of hospitals everywhere. Buffy wrinkled her nose. Hospitals were not her friends. They were places where bad things happened. Cecilia's illness, Willow's injuries after Angelus attacked her, Faith's coma, Mom's operations, Tara's encounter with Glory...

It was very clear. Buffy and hospitals were unmixy things.

And yet.

Here she was, stepping into a small office off the main hallway. Tru pulled her bag off her shoulder and dumped it with her coat on the ragged sofa in the corner, indicating Buffy should do the same. She took a white lab coat off a hook and put it on over her street clothes, pulling her hair clear of the collar and fluffing it around her shoulders.

"If they let people into medical school on looks, I think you'd make it," Buffy blurted, then closed her eyes at how that had sounded. "I mean--you look very doctory. Professional."

"Thanks," Tru said, smirking slightly.

Looking almost like Faith, for a moment.

Stop thinking about Faith.

"No problem." Buffy waved Tru's words away. "After a big meal like that, it's a wonder I can still find room for my foot."

"You sure you want to come in?" Tru asked. "You were looking a little green there, for a minute."

"No, it's okay. Hospitals don't have many feel-good memories for me, that's all." Buffy clicked the blinds open on the window between the office and the next room. "I'm actually interested, which takes some doing...college didn't agree with me."

"Really?" Tru sat down at the desk and poked at the computer for a moment. "And I was going on the assumption that I was speaking to a certified guidance counselor."

"Would you believe they only hired me because of my amazing superpowers?" That had hurt to find out. Buffy shook her head, resigned. "They had to pay me because I saved the world. A lot."

"Well, if it was a lot," Tru teased, still reading the computer screen, "then I guess I believe you."

The door on the far side of the room opened and a bearded man breezed through, his smock and gloves covered in blood. "Tru, you're here, good, I need you to--" He stopped, blinked at Buffy, then turned back to Tru. "Take standards, weight and height, external exams."

"How many?" Tru asked.

"Four, and Gardan's still out collecting," he said, twitching slightly as he stared at Buffy.

Tru got up from the computer and pushed him towards her. "Davis, this is Buffy Summers."

"Oh," Davis said. "Is this really the best--" Tru kicked his shin. "I mean, hello."

"Hi." Buffy shifted a bit, looking at Tru for guidance. The guy was still giving her a weird stare.

"Buffy, this is Davis, my boss. He does this." Tru's wave indicated the morgue, and seemed to imply wver ver spasm had now taken over Davis' blinking reflex.

"Nice to meet you. So, what killed them?" Buffy asked brightly.

"Oh, from a primary analysis, exsanguination from a series of median cervical traumatic injuries," Davis said easily. He flashed her a nervous grin, then looked away. More than anything, he reminded her of Willow when they'd first met--going non-verbal and spazzing in the presence of the opposite sex.

"Somebody cut their throats?" Tru sounded pretty shocked for someone who worked in the morgue full time. Or maybe, not shocked...more like indignant, as if these people, whoever they were, deserved a happier death. As if that was possible.

"Or bit them?" Buffy offered. She sighed, trying to remember that she was supposed to be on vacation.

"Yes." Davis narrowed his eyes at her. "You know Tru?"

"We just met today," Buffy said. "You don't mind if I take a look, do you? I've always thought that there was something...fascinating...about coroners..." She gave him her best sexy look, trying to keep a straight face as Tru broke into silent laughter behind him.

"I'm just a medical examiner," Davis mumbled. "Uh, if Tru is sure it's okay." He gave her a meaningful glare, this time reminding Buffy of Giles at his most British.

"You're the boss, Davis," Tru said, slapping his shoulder, and smiling widely at Buffy. Dimples. Really, it was unfair how attractive they were. "If you're sure you won't throw up or anything, you can come and see."

"No problem." Buffy walked after Tru down another hallway and through a pair of swinging doors. They were in a large, dim room with four gurneys draped in sheets. Sheets with tell-tale bloodstains right near the heads. Buffy tried to push down the itch that was her urge to slay. Even in Canada. Weren't the vamps here too polite to go on killing sprees?

"This is the standards room," Tru explained absently. "I have to measure the bodies, take fingerprints, DNA samples, that sort of thing."

Buffy nodded. "So, I'll get out of your way." She already knew what the cause of death was, even if it wasn't what would appear on the death certificates. She also knew that Tru was safe working with the bodies--none of them had been turned.

"You can sit there and watch, if you're not squeamish."

"Okay." Buffy hopped up on an unused table and watched while Tru pulled out a prepared tray of sterile instruments and clicked on the overhead microphone.

By the time Tru was finished with the first body, Buffy was staring in awe.

"That's amazing," she said.

Tru looked up in confusion. "What?"

"You--you know stuff. Lots of really big words. And expertise. There was that, too." Buffy hopped down. "I didn't know you did so much. You morgue people, that is. I never thought a it. it." By the time she met the undead, all that work had gone to waste.

"Yeah, well, for me it's just a summer job," Tru said. "The internship I really wanted fell through." She stared at the dead girl, almost like she expected her to wake up at any second.

"Still, wow. Knowledge girl, is what you are." Buffy moved closer to the gurney and inspected the puncture wounds in the girl's neck up close. Definitely vampire. "What cemetery did they find the bodies near?" she asked.

"Memorial Gardens," Tru said, flipping through the chart. "Wait--how did you know they were found near a cemetery?"

"Um--I guessed?" Buffy tried. "With the neck-biting, and the blood being...gone?"

"You think some freak out there thinks he's a vampire?" Tru asked. "Now that's weird." She stared at the girl on the table for a moment longer.

"Waiting for something?" Buffy asked, after following Tru's gaze and not seeing anything noteworthy.

"Hmm?" Tru shut the chart. "No, of course not." She sighed. "Just--nine murders, all at once like this. You think you're used to it, and then--no reason, just a whole bunch of people who aren't going to get up tomorrow."

"Yeah, well, we're lucky for that much," Buffy said under her breath. "Nine?" she asked aloud. "That is a lot." Would one nest do that much all at once? Hello, I'm on vacation, what does it matter? It matters to Tru...and probably if they're this bold, they won't stop at nine.

"Work," she muttered, disgusted.

"What?"

Buffy grimaced. "I just remembered this work thing, that, um, it can't wait."

"School guidance counseling during the summer?" Tru asked skeptically.

"It's a, a paperwork thing. With the signing, and the notary public...that I forgot to send. I'd better go and do--that. Now."

"It's eleven-thirty at night," Tru said. "Nothing's open."

"Oh..." Buffy started backing away from the room. "Faxes, you know. Modern age. Nothing's ever really shut down. It's a disease, on our society, very...sickening."

Tru started after her. "If you're going to hurl, you could just say so."

"No, no hurling." Buffy stopped, one hand on the door. "I really did have a good time. Maybe we could...do it again? Tomorrow?"

"If I have one," Tru said, glancing over her shoulder at the shrouded bodies.

Buffy nodded. "I think I can take that as a yes. And, I promise. Tomorrow, I will be totally on vacation."

"Okay," Tru said. "I know an excuse when I hear one, trust me."

"I'm sorry," Buffy said. "Just--with the work--if it weren't for that, I'd, um--oh, hell."

"You'd what?" Tru leaned forward, her eyes dark and eager.

Buffy blushed, tilted her head, and said, "I'd probably kiss you."

Then she took off running down the hall before she could hear what Tru thought of that plan.

Those vampires were in for a world of pain.

*


To be continued...probably today.