Obeying Nature

Chapter 14
Xander’s car skidded to a stop as he pulled in front of the emergency doors. He helped Giles get Buffy out of the car, while Anya and Willow ran inside to get help. Giles was met by several doctors and nurses with a stretcher, and before he knew it Buffy was taken from his arms and wheeled through some doors, while being told to wait.
Unable to do anything but watch them wheel the love of his life away, he remained motionless for the longest time staring at the closed doors they took her through.
Finally he turned around, and found the others looking at him with pain-ridden expressions that were trying to be reassuring. His body was shaking and as his knees threatened to give way. Unable to stand anymore, he lowered himself in a chair, buried his face in his hands and started to sob.
Xander and Willow watched him with breaking hearts, and found themselves unable to move to console him, since his sobs only echoed their own pain. Surprisingly, Anya was the one who moved to his side and pulled him into his arms. Even more surprisingly, he willingly let her, and clung to her as if she was his lifeline.
****
Minutes turned to hours, and no one came to inform them what was going on. A nurse had come to take Buffy’s information, but she hadn’t known anything about her condition.
Anya and Willow were both cradled against Xander’s chest, asleep. He watched Giles. The watcher had barely moved in the last hour. Although his sobs had stopped, his head was still buried in his hands, and Xander wondered if he had fallen asleep like that.
The door Buffy had been taken through suddenly opened, and Xander jumped as Giles immediately rose from his seat to face the man in the white coat heading their way.
“Are you the ones who brought Miss Summers in?”
He realised his question was pretty futile as his eyes landed on the older man standing in front of him with red eyes and blood soaked clothes, and the three youths who had come up behind him, also looking tired and pained.
For a second he was at a loss as he was confronted with the pain in the older man’s eyes. He worked at a hospital, and was confronted with distressed friends and family of his patients every day, but something in this man’s eyes shook him to the core. He looked as if his life was over.
They merely nodded at his question, and watched him with worried eyes.
“I am Dr. Bocho, head of surgery. I understand you have been waiting for information about Miss Summers? As she came with severe internal bleeding, and one of her lungs was at a risk of collapsing, but we managed to. . .”
“Dr. Bocho.” He was startled as the older man interrupted him. “Is she still alive?”
The doctor realised they could not care less about medical explanations, and quickly reassured them.
“Yes, she is.” At their relieved breaths, he quickly continued. “But, she is still in critical condition, and after surgery she slipped into a coma. All we can do now is wait.”
Giles could feel his stomach clench again, and closed his eyes briefly to stop more tears from spilling before asking. “Can we please see her?”
The doctor immediately started to shake his head, but Giles’ pained voice stopped him from talking.
“Please, I need to see her.”
“We need to see her” the dark haired boy who had been standing close by said. At the look on their faces, the doctor finally gave them reluctant nod.
“Alright.”
He called a nurse to bring them to her room, but stopped the older man before he had a chance to follow.
“I am sorry sir, but you need to change your clothes and wash up.”
Giles looked at his clothes as if seeing them for the first time. They were covered in Buffy’s blood. Xander heard the exchange, and came to Giles’ side.
“I have some clean clothes in the car, I’ll get them for you.” In no time he was back with jeans and a white t-shirt, and gave them to Giles with a shaky smile.
“We’ll wait for you.”
“That’s alright”, the doctor said. “I’ll take him to Miss Summer’s room as soon as he is cleaned up.” Xander gave Giles a doubtful look, but gave a reluctant shrug as Giles told him to go ahead. As they disappeared though the door, Dr. Bocho felt bad watching the longing on the man’s face.
“Come on, you can get cleaned up in there” he said as he pointed towards a sign for the men’s bathroom. Giles nodded and hurried down the hall and disappeared through the door. He was shocked when he was faced with his haggard appearance in the bathroom mirror. Not only were his clothes covered in blood, his left cheek had blood on it as well. He realised it must have happened when Buffy touched his cheek in the woods.
He shook his head to get rid of the memories and quickly washed and changed before joining the doctor in the lobby. The man mercifully took him to Buffy’s room.

Chapter 15
Willow, Anya and Xander were seated in some chairs at the far end of the room, but Giles paid them no attention as he moved to Buffy’s side. Wiping an errant tear away from his cheek, he gently took her hand in his and sat carefully on the bed.
She looked so small and pale against the big bed and white sheet. He closed his eyes and said a silent prayer to anything that was listening for her to come back to him. After a short while he opened his eyes again, ran a hand down her cheek and whispered her name.
Xander held back a surprised gasp as he saw Giles lower himself so he was lying next to Buffy on the bed. He watched Giles gently wrap an arm around her, carefully arranging it a safe distance from her wound. He shared a questioning look with Willow, who looked just as bewildered as he did.
Then they heard Giles’ soft voice start singing, and they looked back at the bed with their hearts melting.

We have both been here before
knocking upon love's door
begging for someone to let us in
knowing this we can agree
to keep each other company
never to go down that road again
My beloved one
My beloved One
Your eyes shine through me
You are so divine to me
Your heart has a home in mine
We won't have to say a word
With a touch all shall be heard
When I search my heart it's you I find
My beloved one
My beloved one
You were meant for mI beI believe you were sent to me
From a dream straight into my arms
Hold your body close to me
You mean the most to me
We will keep each other safe from harm
My beloved one
My beloved one
My beloved one

As the last words faded away his voice broke. Tears spilled on all their faces while every person in the room silently begged for Buffy’s recovery. Willow and Xander didn’t hope mostly for their sake, but for Giles’. His song made them realised that the Buffy was his world. If she died this time, he would fall apart.
Exhaustion finally took its toll on their bodies, and one by one they fell asleep. Giles tried as hard as he could to stay awake, and had spent his time fighting sleep watching her chest rise and fall with every breath. The doctor had told him it was a good sign she was able to breathe on her own, GileGiles wouldn’t be satisfied until he was able to look into her eyes.
Finally his eyes started to droop and without being able to fight it any longer, he fell into a restless sleep.
*****
Thus they all missed the flutter of Buffy’s eyelids. Not even the change in Buffy’s breathing pattern or her gentle movements managed to rouse Giles. It took a little time for her eyes to open, and even longer for her to realise where she was and to remember what had brought her there.
A gentle tickle from a breath to her neck made her turn her head, and her eyes lit up as she saw Giles’ sleeping face lying close to her. They immediately grew worried when she saw that even in his sleep he was frowning with weariness.
She brought a hand up to stroke his forehead, to try to remove whatever bad things were going around in his head, and her breath caught as his eyes suddenly opened.
His relieved exclamation of her name woke the others, but she kept her eyes on his. He looked into her eyes like he hadn’t seen her in months. When he tried to get up to fetch the nurse, she dug her hand in his t-shirt. “Don’t go!”
He remained still, and stroked her cheek, before pulling at the calling line tied to her bed. “I’m right here, luv, I won’t go anywhere.”
The others finally stood and circled her bed, but Buffy was looking nowhere but at the man lying next to her.

TBC