Xander glanced sideways at Buffy as he drove toward the hospital. Her worry was clear on her face, and in her posture. The happiness he’d been getting used to seeing in her over the past few days was completely gone. “Tell me what happened,” he said.
Buffy shook her head. “I don’t know. Dawn said Mom just collapsed. She called 911 for an ambulance, before she called me.”
Xander nodded, clutching at any straw that he could to reassure Buffy. “That’s good. Dawn did the right thing. She’s a smart girl.”
Buffy smiled wanly at him. “Yeah, she is.” He could tell that she knew what he was trying to do, and was trying to go along with it, to make him feel better. He wondered how far they could pretend each other into a better mood. He thought about ordering Buffy not to worry, but he couldn’t do that. If he started passing out orders like that, she’d stop being the Buffy Summers that he knew and loved. His Buffy worried when the people she cared about were hurt, or in danger.
“Whatever it is, I’m sure she’ll be fine,” said Xander. “Joyce is a Summers Woman, and they always bounce back.”
Buffy gave him another sad smile. “Yeah, we always do.”
Xander dropped Buffy off at the main entrance to the hospital before he went looking for a parking space. When he got inside he found Buffy with Dawn. Dawn had a stethoscope that she was fiddling with, using it to listen to her own heart. “How’s your mom?” he asked.
“We’re still waiting for word,” said Buffy. “They haven’t told us anything yet.”
An intern came out of the examining room, and smiled at Dawn. “I’m going to need that back soon,” he said, pointing to the stethoscope.
“Yeah, sure,” said Dawn. “Oh! Buffy, Xander, this is Ben. He’s been taking care of Mom.” She moved over closer to Xander and put the stethoscope up to his chest.
“How’s Mom?” asked Buffy.
“She seems to be just fine,” said Ben. “It was probably just low blood sugar. We want to run a couple more tests, but you should be able to take her home tonight. I’ve got a little bit of paperwork that we need to get sorted out with you, before we can do that, though.”
“Uh, yeah, sure.” Buffy moved off with him to the counter by the nurses’ station to go over some forms with him.
Xander looked down at Dawn, who seemed to be concentrating on listening to his heart beat. “You know, Anya likes to do that too?” he asked.
Dawn looked up, startled by his words. “Huh? What?”
“Anya likes to listen to my heart beat,” said Xander. “She usually sleeps with her head on my chest, so she can hear it.”
“Xander, it’s bad enough that I have to listen to her talk about your sex life whenever she’s around. Do you have to do it too?”
“Who said anything about sex?” asked Xander.
“You, Anya, bed: the sex part is pretty much a given,” said Dawn.
“Yeah, I suppose it is,” said Xander, smiling at her, and happy that he’d managed to distract her some more from worrying about her mother. “So, how’s it sound to you?”
“It sounds good,” said Dawn. “Thump-thum, thump-thum, thump-thum. Nice and strong and steady. I’ve always known that you had a good heart.”
“Hey, it’s one of my best qualities,” said Xander. “So, how are you doing?”
“Better, now that you’re here.”
Xander hugged her. Oh, Dawn, he thought. He knew about her crush on him. How could he not? Every time she saw him, she lit up just the way Willow had, when they had been that age. His teenaged idiot self hadn’t recognized it for what it was, (or lived on that river in Egypt) but he did now. And he loved Dawn. Just as he had always loved Willow. (But there would be absolutely no Fluking! No way! No how! Not ever!) Dawn was like a kid sister to him, just like Joyce was like a second mother. A second mother who actually seemed to care more about him than his real mother did. He had to get his mind off that track.
“You know you did good, right?” asked Xander. “You did just the things you were supposed to do.”
“I felt so useless,” said Dawn. “Buffy would have done better.”
“Oh, no she wouldn’t!” said Xander. “You did just as much as Buffy could have. Your mom wasn’t attacked by a vampire, or a demon, or anything that could get beaten up. She got sick, and you called for the ambulance to bring her here, where the doctors are going to make her better. This isn’t a problem that the Slayer can solve. Your mom needs doctors, and you got her to them as quickly as humanly possible.”
Buffy came back with Ben. “Everything’s all signed, and approved,” he told them. He glanced toward the examining room, and apparently saw something that wasn’t evident to Xander. “You can go in and see her now.” No doubt some sort of secret medical signal had been passed along.
Xander followed Buffy and Dawn into Joyce’s room, and watched as the two sisters gave their mother hugs.
“I feel so silly, for giving you all such a scare,” said Joyce.
“Don’t,” said Buffy. “We just want you to get well. How are you feeling?”
“Still have a headache, but other than that, I feel fine,” said Joyce.
“We’ll give you a prescription for some higher strength pain medication,” said a doctor from the doorway behind them. Xander glanced at his name tag, and saw that his name was Isaacs. He flipped back and forth between a couple of pages in the medical chart he was carrying. “Hmmm.”
“Hmmm?” asked Buffy. “Is that a good ‘hmmm,’ or a bad ‘hmmm?’”
“It’s an ‘I got a funny feeling,’ hmmm,” said Dr. Isaacs.
“What?” asked Buffy. Xander shared her puzzlement. In his experience, doctors always pretended to be confident when they talked to their patients. It seemed to him that the more confused a doctor was, the more confident they pretended to be. Dr. Isaacs letting them see that there was something he wasn’t sure about confused him.
Dr. Isaacs turned his attention to Joyce. “Mrs. Summers, usually, in a case with your symptoms and history, I’d give you the ‘take two aspirins, and call me in the morning,’ speech, though with something a bit stronger than aspirin. But I’ve got a gut feeling. It’s probably just the barrito I had at lunch.”
“What do you want to do?” asked Joyce.
“I want to run an MRI scan,” said Dr Isaacs. “Now, normally, I couldn’t justify that expense to your insurance company without ruling out a lot of other things first, but it turns out that this hospital just took delivery on a brand-new MRI machine, that we are currently doing calibration and acceptance trials on. Most of those trials are being done on volunteer staff members, but we can slot you in too, for free, if you’d like.”
“Is there any risk from the scan?” asked Buffy.
“Completely harmless, assuming we’ve been told the truth about your mother’s medical history,” said Dr. Isaacs. “No pacemaker, cochlear implants, anything like that, or bits of loose metal inside your body?” he asked Joyce, and she shook her head. “Then there’s no problem. It’s a completely non-invasive procedure.”
“Let’s do it,” said Joyce. “If nothing else, it will help you get your machine calibrated, right?”
“That it will,” said Dr. Isaacs. “I’ll just call up to the third floor to tell them you’re coming.”
Xander paced back and forth across the floor in the waiting room outside the MRI lab. “Will you calm down?” asked Buffy. “You’re freaking Dawn out. Whatever happens, Mom’s going to come out of there just fine.”
Xander smiled at the younger Summers sister. “Sorry. I know that this is hard for you, and I’m sure your mom is going to be fine, but I just can’t help myself.” He spun around to make another pass across the floor, wearing the path he was making in the carpet even deeper, and bumped into a candy-striper who was hurrying across the waiting room with a stack of medical charts in her hands.
“Ack!” she cried, while Xander said “Oh! Sorry!” and clipboards clattered to the floor.
Buffy and Dawn suppressed giggles as they watched Xander help the girl collect all the fallen charts. “I’m really sorry about that,” said Xander, as he placed the last of them back into her hands.
“It’s okay, Sir,” said the girl. Buffy felt a bit of a thrill at that. The girl had called Xander ‘Sir!’ just like Buffy did when they were… What if he’d ordered her to get down on her knees, and… Oh God! she shouldn’t be having thoughts like that now! She closed her eyes, and shuddered.
“Buffy, are you okay?” asked Dawn.
“I’m fine,” said Buffy. “Just a little tired.”
None of them noticed the medical chart that was still on the floor, under Dawn’s seat.
“Finally!” said Joyce as Xander held the door of his car open for her. “It will be good to get home again, and away from this place!”
“I don’t think that you’ll find many people who list hospitals in their top ten most favourite things,” said Xander. “How are you doing?”
“Much better, now that I’m out of there,” said Joyce.
Buffy and Dawn got into the back, while Xander went around to the driver’s side door. Dawn picked up a bag from an electronics store, that had been sitting on her seat. “Hey, what’s this?” she asked. She started to look inside it.
“You shouldn’t be snooping in other people’s things, Dawn,” said Joyce, “It’s not polite.”
“Oh, she can look in there all she wants,” said Xander, as he started the car. “Then she can give the box with Buffy’s name on it to her sister, since it’s for her.”
Dawn looked in the bag. “Cell phones?” she asked, pulling out a box, and flipping it around to read the labeling.
Buffy snatched the box out her her hands. “Oh! A cell phone? For me?”
“Yeah.” Xander looked both ways before carefully pulling out of the hospital parking lot, and turning toward the Summers house. “Giles had me pick them up earlier. He finally decided to join the twentieth century, with three whole months to spare!”
“Didn’t the twentieth century end last year?” asked Buffy.
“Only for people who can’t count right,” said Dawn. “So, how come she’s getting a phone?”
“Giles figured that all the Scoobies should have one, for emergencies and stuff, and so we can talk to each other about things that your mom probably doesn’t want Harriet the Spy listening in on.”
“Don’t call me that,” said Dawn. “It was a stupid movie. Harriet was totally miscast.”
“You know what they say,” said Xander. “If the shoe fits…” He smiled, thinking some private thoughts about some of the phone conversations that he was planning to have with Buffy, which Joyce definitely wouldn’t want Dawn listening in on. Good thing all the phones came with hands-free headsets.
“You just got your phone privileges back, young lady,” added Joyce. “If you’re not careful, you could lose them again.”
“Alright, but if people would actually tell me what’s going on, I wouldn’t have to snoop so much.”
“Dawn, you’re too young to be learning about that stuff,” said Joyce.
“I’m almost as old as Buffy was, when she started being the Slayer,” said Dawn.
“And I was too young for a lot of the stuff I had to deal with,” said Buffy.
“Dawn might have a point,” said Xander. “Not about getting involved in the Slaying, but maybe she should be told more about some of the stuff that’s going on. Might help keep her out of trouble.”
“I don’t get in trouble,” said Dawn.
“Cough!Harmony!cough!”
“One time,” said Dawn.
“What’s that about?” asked Joyce.
“Nothing!” said Buffy. “Nothing you need to worry about. It’s all over and taken care of.”
“And here were are!” said Xander. “Casa de Verano!”
“When did you start learning Spanish?” asked Buffy. “It certainly wasn’t in high school.”
Xander pulled his car up to the curb in front of the Summers house. “Got some Spanish guys on my crew. They’re teaching me a few things.”
“As long as they’re not teaching you the Dirty Hungarian Phrasebook versions of things,” said Joyce.
“Oooh! The Classics! Fear not, my hovercraft is completely eel free!”
“What are you guys talking about?” asked Buffy, the look of confusion on her face was mirrored on Dawn’s.
“Your mother has just revealed herself to be an aficionado of one of the finest comic troupes since the Marx Brothers.” Xander smiled at her. “You continue to reveal hidden depths, Joyce. Now, are you okay to walk to the house, or will Buffy have to carry you?”
“I think I’m good.” Joyce opened her door, and started to climb out. Buffy still managed to get out her own door and around to her mother’s side before Joyce was all the way out of the car, to give her a shoulder to lean on if she needed it.
Joyce took a couple of unsteady steps before swaying slightly. Buffy put a steadying arm around her. “Are you alright, Mom?”
“Yeah, just a little light headed. Dr. Isaacs warned me that the pills he gave me could do that.”
“Then let’s get you into the house, and sitting back down again,” said Buffy. “Come on. Dawn, you go ahead and get the door open.”
Xander stayed for a bit longer, while Buffy got her mother settled in bed. When she came back downstairs he took her by the hand, and led her out onto the back porch of the house. “There are a few things that I want to tell you, before I go tell the others how your mom’s doing.”
“What?” asked Buffy.
“First, an order: for the next couple of days, your most important job is taking care of your mother, and your sister. Until she’s better, they are going to need your love and support.”
“Yes, Sir,” said Buffy, she smiled at him. “Thank you, Sir.”
“And I’ve got a little present for you, a reward for the outstanding job that I know you’re going to do at that.”
“A reward?” asked Buffy. “What sort of reward?” She hoped it would be her nipple rings. The bulky sweater she’d been wearing since she’d heard her mother was sick would keep them from being seen by Dawn, or her mother.
“Buffy, before this all started, did you every just lightly stroke your clit?” Buffy started to quickly answer that of course she did, but he held up a finger against her lips to stop her before she could get the first words out. “Not to get yourself off, or even to get turned on, but just because it felt nice, while you were alone, studying, reading, watching TV, or something like that?”
“Yeah, I do that sometimes,” said Buffy.
“Okay, I want you to hold that feeling in your head. That’s what I want this to feel like, after the initial pain, that I know you’re going to like.” He stepped forward and hugged her.
Buffy was beginning to suspect what Xander had in mind, so she wasn’t totally surprised by the sharp stab of pain through her clitoral hood. She still gasped, and would have fallen to her knees from the near orgasm that quick jab had given her, if Xander hadn’t already been holding her. She saw stars for a few seconds, while she gasped for breath. “Oh god, Xander! Thank you!” The pain was already fading, and she could feel the ring pressing against her clit.
Xander smiled and kissed her forehead. “Looks like that worked. How’s it feel?” he asked.
“You were right, it started off fantastic, and now it’s…nice.”
“I think I’m going to call that one your Reward Ring,” said Xander, “and it’s got some special rules.”
“What sort of rules?” asked Buffy.
“First: this one is permanent. It isn’t going to be coming and going like your nipple rings. It’s always going to be there: a constant reminder that you are mine, and that I love you, and control you, even when I’m not with you.”
“Oh, thank you, Sir!”
“Two: when no one is playing with it, it’s going to feel just like it feels now: nice. It isn’t going to distract you from your training, or slaying, or classes, or enjoying spending time with your friends or family. Of course when someone is playing with it, it’s going to feel terrific!”
“Thank you, Xander!”
“Three: you may not play with it yourself, unless Anya or I give you specific permission to do so, nor can you ask for anyone to play with it, though I’m sure that once Anya and Faith find out about it, they will be quite eager to play, without you asking.”
“Yes, Sir.”
“So, now I want you to spend the rest of the evening with Dawn and Joyce. Take care of them, and spend some time playing with your new phone. Make sure you know how it works. All the Scoobies’ phone numbers are already programmed in, but you might want to add some others. And after you’ve gotten Dawn off to bed—at her usual bed-time, no fair making her go to bed early—you can go to bed yourself, and then you’re going to get your nipple rings back, and you can play quietly with them, and your Reward Ring for half an hour. You have to be quiet though, so you don’t disturb your mother or sister. When the half hour is up I want you to go to sleep, and have pleasant dreams.”
“Oh, thank you, Xander!”
“One more thing: make really sure that you know how the hands-free headset works. You’re going to need it in the morning. Now, is there anything you need from me before I go?” asked Xander.
“A kiss?” asked Buffy.
“My pleasure.” Xander placed a gentle kiss on Buffy’s lips, which quickly deepened. When they finally came up for air, he smiled at her. “Hmmm, I’m going to miss that for the next little while. I’m getting used to having Buffy-kisses at regular intervals.”
“I’m going to miss my Xander-kisses more,” said Buffy. “You’ll still have Faith and Anya.”
“Much as I hate to leave you, I do have to go now.”
“I know.” They started back toward the door. Neither of them saw Dawn disappearing from the kitchen window. “Xander, there is one thing I’ve been wondering about.”
“What’s that?”
“What’s the deal with that little tune Faith hums, that makes you and Anya hug her?”
“Oh, I guess we never told you about that. That’s a little experiment I tried with a post hypnotic suggestion. When Faith feels like she’d like a hug, she hums that tune.”
“Why?”
“Well, you know Faith. She’d never admit that she wants someone to hug her, or initiate a hug on her own. She doesn’t even know she’s doing it. As far as she’s concerned, it seems like Anya and I just seem to know when she wants a hug, and now, so do you.”
“Have you done anything like that with me?”
“Nope. You haven’t needed it. You’ve never been shy about hugging the people you care about, when you think you, or they, need it.”
Xander got back to the Magic Box just as an exhausted looking Giles was seeing the final customers out the door. Xander had picked up a large box of assorted doughnuts, and ten, one dollar, scratch-and-win lottery tickets on his way back from Buffy’s house. He gave the tickets to Anya while the others descended on the doughnuts.
“How is Mrs. Summers?” asked Tara.
“Back home with Buffy and Dawn,” said Xander. “She’s got some pills that seem to be taking care of the pain, but they make her dizzy and sleepy. They gave her an MRI scan, and her doctor wants to spend some time looking over the results. He said he’d know more on Monday.”
Faith hummed her little tune, and Xander was surprised when it was Tara who responded first. “I’m sure Mrs. Summers will be fine,” she said, while giving Faith a quick hug. Willow didn’t look happy to see her girlfriend hugging Faith.
Anya squealed with delight. “Oh! I won ten dollars!”
“Well, that’s still consistant,” said Xander. “I keep breaking even on those things.”
“Which means you’re beating the odds by quite a bit,” said Willow. “Expected return on most scratch-and-wins is only about twenty-five cents to the dollar.”
Max usually liked working as a janitor at the hospital. He could pass as a human, as long as he kept his clothes on, and he could just soak up all the human misery an empath demon could want, without having to attract any attention to himself by actually causing much of that misery. The only real downside was that the Slayer was a fairly regular visitor, either bringing in injured people she had found, or visitting recovering friends. Luckily, he could sense her bright aura fairly far away, so he could always make himself busy in some other part of the hospital when he felt her presence.
That was why he’d shifted his normal schedule around, earlier that evening, bypassing the cleaning of the MRI waiting area until well after she had gone from it. He found the dropped clipboard under one of the chairs, and grinned. A lost chart could cause a fair amount of misery, and now he had a chance to add a little more. It wouldn’t have to be anything overt, that anyone would notice. He’d just have to see to it that the chart stayed missing for a little while longer. Instead of giving it someone who would see to it that it got correctly filed, he could just “file” it himself, and certainly not in the correct place.
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