nv4

~~~part 4~~~

Buffy and Angel were rooted to the ground, helplessly watching as the doctor and nurses rushed around the room trying their best to help Willow. Angel wanted to barge into the room and demand that they do something and now, anything to stop the beeping alarms. To him they weren't moving fast enough were being incompetent in their jobs.

He watched in horror as a nurse rushed to Willow's bed with a long plastic tube. Another nurse opened Willow's mouth, and helped guide the tube past her tongue and down her throat.

"They're pumping her stomach." Buffy's whispered. "Why are they pumping her stomach?" Turning to Angel for answers she felt panic rising in her chest.

"I don't know." Angel couldn't tear his eyes from the scene. There was something more going on then a spell draining Willow. A sudden anger engulfed him. He was helpless to do anything. Willow was in danger and there was no big bad to fight no spells that could be cast. He couldn't do a damn thing but stand here hopelessly, and it was a feeling he didn't like at all.

Willow's body tried to fight the unnatural object being forced into her body, her gagging reflexes trying to make the tube out of her throat. Another
nurse held Willow down, opening her mouth wider.

"They're hurting her!" Buffy told herself to get into the room, to make them stop what they were doing. But her body wouldn't respond.

As soon as the tube was in an ugly looking black substance was poured into the opening. After a moment the beeping stopped, but neither Angel nor Buffy noticed. Their attention was on the tube, waiting for one of the nurses to pull out the intrusive object. What seemed like an eternity the tube was finally taken out, and miraculously all seemed calm.

"Excuse me?" Angel and Buffy turned to the elderly nurse who approached without either noticing. "We need you to please waiting in the waiting room. The doctor will be out in a moment."

Angel noticed that Buffy was ready to argue. "Sure." Taking the slayer by the elbow he had to practically pull her down the hell to the room the others were waiting in.

"Angel, I want to keep an eye on Willow." Buffy glared at him, yanking her arm form his grasp.

"Why there's nothing that you can do. There's something wrong with Willow that has nothing to do with the spell she cast. There's no demon after her that we can kill. Face it Buffy, we'd only get in the way." Turning away from her pouting face Angel stalked off down the hall. He was too worried about a little redhead to put up with Buffy's wants and demands.

By the time he entered the small room Buffy had caught up, following right behind. Xander and Cordelia were off to one side, Xander shoving green gook into his mouth. Giles was staring at the clock on the wall. Their gazes locked in on the Angel and Buffy, everyone holding their breath, waiting for any kind of news.

"They told us to wait here." Angel didn't want to be the one to tell the gang what he had just witnessed. A part of him thinking that if he didn't speak about it, then it never really happened.

When they knew that Angel wasn't giving up any other information they looked to Buffy. "They pumped her stomach." Giles and Xander paused, a shared look of disbelief on their faces. Cordelia on the other hand started choking on her diet Coke.

Cordelia knew the second Buffy spoke what was wrong with Willow. She had overdosed on those damn caffeine pills she was gobbling down like candy. Mix that with little to no food, and a few cases of soda, a pot of coffee and no sleep? Not a good healthy diet.

"They pumped her stomach?" Xander repeated the words trying to grasp what wasn't being said.

"Then it had nothing to do with the spell she cast." Giles connected the dots for Xander. Letting out a long sigh, Giles removed his glasses and rested his head in his hands.

"Why would they have to pump her stomach?" Xander understood what was wrong with Willow wasn't anything Hellmouthy, but his little buddy getting her stomach pumped? "Did she eat something bad?"

"She'd had to eat." Angel muttered. Buffy glared at him again. Cordelia caught the words as well and looked up sharply at Angel. Did he know something? Had he caught on? She knew that Angel was one smart cookie, but damn that was fast. Perhaps the dreams were something more, that maybe he was remembering them too. No, he would've said something already.

"I don't think so Xander." Buffy answered Xander.

"Mr. Giles?" The doctor who had treated Willow stood in the doorway. "Can you follow me so we can speak privately?" Giles replaced his glasses on his head and followed the doctor to an empty examination room.

"Is Willow all right?" Giles felt a knot in his throat, and no matter how he swallowed it wouldn't go away.

"Yes she'll be fine. I see this a couple times a year. Usually it's the College students from the campus nearby, but occasionally a high school teen. There was an abnormally large amount of caffeine in Miss Rosenberg's system. The kids these days are popping those damn No Doz and Vivarine without any thoughts to their health."

"Caffeine pills?" Giles was lost. "I know Midterms are coming up...but I really can't see Willow taking anything to keep her awake."

"We did have a slight complication when her heartbeat set the monitors off. That's when we realized we needed to pump the girl's stomach. After that everything was fine, except..." The doctor was cut off when an intern knocked gently on the door.

"Doctor Simms? You asked me to bring you the lab results as soon as they came in." Giles watched as the doctor skimmed through several pages and pausing on one. With a slight shake of his head, he thanked the young man with saddened eyes and turned his attention back to Giles.

"Except what?" Giles asked.

The doctor looked at Giles as though he had forgotten what they had been talking about. "Oh! She's still unconscious, which isn't all that abnormal. But by her brainwaves she's in a very deep REM."

"I don't understand, what's wrong about her dreaming?" Giles asked.

"Well her heartbeat is rapid, by all counts she shouldn't be dreaming like she is. But everything else is fine. Her lab work... as long as Miss Rosenberg
stays away from the over-the-counter pills and gets eight hours of sleep a night she should be fine."

"Can we see her?" The doctor was already heading toward the door but Giles's words stopped him.

"Normally hospital policy says that only family can visit a patient while in the ICU. But I think we both know that nothing is ever 'normal' around here. I can't see what a short visit; one at a time would hurt. I'll let Beth, the head nurse know." Giles watched as the doctor walked away before letting out a deep sigh of relief. He needed to hear the words from the doctors mouth, that whatever was wrong with Willow had nothing to do with any Hellmouthy activity. He wasn't thrilled that the young witch had taken too many caffeine pills, and she would defiantly get a lecture forthcoming.

It was Giles's greatest fear, one of his young charges getting injured while trying to protect the Hellmouth, or worse dying. There had been several sleepless nights he had tortured himself for allowing the teens to help with life threatening circumstances. Beating himself up over their lost youth and the burden each of them had to be carrying from all that they've seen and done.

His only saving grace was the tiny rational side of his brain, the voice that told him that those very teens he worried about every night would probably be dead right now, taken out by the Harvest. That his slayer would never had made it this far without the support of her friends. Plus was he ever really given the choice? If he were to tell them that they could no longer help, that it was Buffy's duty not theirs. Would they heed his words, or just continue on.

They'd ignore him. Which instead of bothering Giles made him slightly proud. Each of the young youths showed more concern and empathy on a bad day than most grown-ups did in their entire lives. Their heroic deeds had thus far preserved the world balance, they'd saved thousands...millions of lives, plus found time to try and live their lives as normal teens.

Now they had this situation that Willow had put herself into, for God only knows what reason. Nothing could convince Giles that Willow needed extra caffeine to stay awake to study. The girl had already been excepted to a dozen colleges. Perhaps the stress was getting to her. She was the most emotional out of the group. Always fixing bruised feelings, making sure that everyone felt wanted and needed. Perhaps it was time that the same was returned to her. Whatever the situation they would handle it as a group as they always did. They'll be by her side, ready to help.

Making his way slowly to the waiting room, Giles prepared himself for the onslaught of questions that would be fired his way. The last thing he needed was for the hospital staff to think a riot had broken out, they'd never let any of them near Willow's room.

Stepping inside the silent room he was pleasantly shocked that none of them spoke, but looked at him with anxious expressions. Buffy was for once sitting by herself instead of being glued to Angel's side. Angel sat across the room, his face pensive as he waited for the news. Xander and Cordelia sat holding hands, getting strength from the odd connection the two seemed to have made.

"She'll be all right." Giles held up his hand as each of them prepared to open there mouths and start talking. "I'll explain everything back at the library, but right now her doctor has been kind enough to allow us each a short visit with her." As each bolted out of their chairs Giles stopped them again. "One at a time. And so we don't have any more visits to the emergency room tonight I'll chose the order. Xander you may go first." Buffy shot a hurtful look at Giles, she was positive that she would get picked first. "Then Buffy, Cordelia, Angel then myself."

Cordelia watched as Xander hurried from the room. Staring at the clock, eager for her turn she busied herself at ignoring Angel who was pacing the room. The dark moody expression on his face made her uneasy. Knowing this big huge secret about him, and having him just feet away made her feel anxious. As though at any second Angel was going to turn to her and demand she tell him what she was hiding. Not that she'd tell him, but having those intense brown eyes studying her would be unsettling.

Angel waited for his turn as Xander returned and Buffy took his place. Then after what seemed to be hours Buffy came back only for Cordelia to leave. Why was he so impatient? Willow was going to be fine. Even though Giles may not have said anything yet, Angel could tell by Giles apparent relaxed state that Willow wasn't in danger. But the longer he had to wait the tenser he became. It made no sense.

An eternity later he was finally standing by her bedside. Just watching the rise and fall of her chest calmed his nerves. Her heartbeat was still a little erratic, but not nearly as it was before. Studying her face she seemed to be paler than usual, but he could feel her warmth from her tiny hand he had grasped into his larger one. Brushing back a few stray pieces of crimson locks, he marveled at the silkiness.

Suddenly an image invaded his mind. He saw Willow in a bed of bed of black silk. There were tears in her eyes and rolling down her cheeks, her lips were moving but there was no sound. She was talking to someone. Then a shadow crossed her face, and Angel could see the back view of some man. They were kissing, unknowingly a low growl came from Angel's throat. It wasn't until the man pulled away that Angel saw his face. It was him. Though he hadn't seen his reflection for over two hundred years he had seen a few drawings, and that unmistakably was him. He was speaking, once again no sound came could be heard. Willow was nodding and--.

"Angel?" Jumping when Giles's hand came to rest on his shoulder, Angel spun around in surprise. "I-I'm sorry, it's just been twenty minutes and I became concerned."

Blinking a few times to clear his head, Angel looked back at Willow again. She hadn't moved, nothing had changed. What the hell was that?

"Sorry, I just lost track of time."

"She's going to be fine Angel." Giles studied the vampires expression, noting the overwhelming concern on his dark features.

"She'd *be* fine had she stayed at the library like I told her to." Angel shoved his hands in the pockets of his black duster. "I knew I shouldn't have backed down."

"Angel, you can't blame yourself. Willow is not your responsibility."

"You know what Giles I know that. But whose responsibility is she? Her parents? Tell me does she really have a Mother and Father? Because I've never seen them, they're so busy traveling around doing God knows what. While their daughter is left at home alone, on the Hellmouth." Angel's eye's darkened, and Giles listened intently as Angel spoke. "If it's not her parents that are responsible who is? Buffy? Xander? Cordelia? They can all barely take care of themselves. I'm just dying to know who exactly is watching out for her best interests."

Giles waited for more, but it was obvious that Angel had run out of things to rant about. He now looked a little dazed and utterly perplexed that he said anything at all. "I'll just... let you..." Angel turned and left the room. Waiting for the door to shut firmly behind the vampire Giles let out a breath.

"Oh Boy."