Tell Me I Was Dreaming
by Shyfox
The Wish
[reviews]
Chapter seven: The Wish
Last night I had a crazy dream.
A wish was granted just for me. It could be for anything.
I didn't wish for money, or a mansion by the blue.
I simply wished for one more day with you.
One more day.
One more time.
One more sunset, baby, I'd be satisfied.
But then again, I know what it would do.
Leave me wishing still for one more day with you.
-- Diamond Rio
Joyce thought that she was seeing things when she poked her head into Buffy's hospital room the next morning. Sheila and Willow had their heads together, discussing everything from marriage to motherhood, while living on the hellmouth.
It did Joyce's heart good to see them together like this, grateful for Sheila's change of heart where her daughter was concerned. Willow certainly needed all of the support that she could get right now.
It took the conversing pair a while to notice that she was standing there. She was just contemplating creeping back out when Willow picked up her head and saw her.
"Joyce...hi. Come on in."
Joyce hesitated, not wanting to intrude on this moment. "I'm sorry to interrupt. I can come back later."
Willow was just starting to shake her head in protest, when her mother spoke up. "No...please...stay." Sheila said awkwardly, as she rose to greet the person that had been there for her daugher when she hadn't been. "I...wanted to thank you for taking Willow in and supporting her. After talking with her last night, I've begun to realize just how much I've missed out on with her...especially over the last few years. It's going to take me a while to make up for that. I'm just glad that I'm getting this second chance."
"We all make mistakes. I know I've made my own with Buffy." Joyce said, ruefully, a wistful look filling her eyes as she looked over at where her daughter lay so still. "Some I don't think I've even begun to atone for yet."
Willow eyed her sympathetically, knowing what she was thinking about. "Buffy never blamed you for that. I think you should know...just in case." Willow cast her own look at the bed, knowing that she shouldn't be thinking the unthinkable, but somehow not being able to prevent it.
"How is she?" Joyce couldn't keep herself from asking, walking over to take the cool fingers into her own hand. "Were there any changes during the night?"
Willow shook her head slowly. "None noticable. The nurses came in to check on her a couple of times...but..." She shrugged, helplessly.
"I would have thought that her healing powers would have kicked in by now." Joyce murmured, thoughtfully.
"Maybe they have." Willow agreed, cautiously. "But most of her ouchies are on the inside...so we probably wouldn't notice anyway."
Joyce nodded, quietly, wondering what was going on inside Buffy's head at the moment, trying to imagine her daughter's healing ability kicking in to overtime. "I just know that she's going to pull through this."
"She has to." Willow agreed, softly.
Sheila watched the communication, noticing how close Joyce and Willow appeared to be, and wondering where she had lost that connection with her own daughter. She knew that level of trust was hard to build and easily broken. She didn't know if she'd ever be able to re-establish that link. She was going to give it her every effort though, and if Ira didn't like it...well, she'd be damned if she'd let him stop her from having a relationship with her own daughter. She hoped against all hope that he would come to his senses...but if he didn't...well she wasn't about to let the opportunity to get to know her own daughter...and later her granddaughter, to pass her by.
*****
Doctor Greene entered Buffy's room not long after Joyce had, and if he was surprised by the presence of the three women he didn't let it show.
"Good morning." He smiled congenially at Joyce and Willow, introducing himself to Sheila, before moving his attention to his patient. "And, how are we doing this morning, Miss Summers?" His voice was cheerful as he picked up Buffy's chart, almost as if he expected her to say. "Why, I'm fine, Doc. How are you?"
At Willow's questioning look, Dr. Greene explained his behavior. "I've gotten into the habit of talking to my patients. I imagine that they can hear me, and like hearing a warm, friendly voice on the other side...something that they can cling to while they heal. And it has been proven to increase brain stimulation, heightening her chances for recovery."
"I've heard that too." Willow nodded, having researched this very thing. She watched him curiously while he examined Buffy's chart, wondering what it said, if anything, about the progress of her wife's recovery.
He felt their attention on him, like little pinpricks on the back of his neck, while he examined the chart, knowing that they were anxiously waiting for him to make some sort of prognosis. He nodded to himself, closing the chart before turning to look at three worried faces.
"Well?" Willow asked, unable to wait any longer.
"I'm sure you're all eager to see Buffy making progress. The truth is, we don't know where she's at right now. We will need to take numerous x-rays and Cat scans today and compare them to the ones we took when she first came in. Hopefully, we will find that the bruising and swelling is going down. The sooner the pressure in her brain is alleviated, the better off she's going to be." He explained.
"How soon will we know?" Joyce asked, laying a comforting hand on Willow's shoulder.
"The tests should take about three to four hours. I'll notify you when we have the results, but until then I strongly suggest that you get something to eat, and then get some rest." He directed most of the last part to Willow, who he was worried about. "You won't be doing Buffy any good by wearing yourself out."
Willow found herself getting a little angry at his presumption. And though she wanted to object, she felt the exhaustion starting to eat away at her reserves, and the growling of her stomach reminded her that she hadn't eaten since some time yesterday. Noticing the caring, concerned looks she was recieving from the Doctor and both of her mothers she started to feel slightly ashamed that she wasn't taking better care of herself, therefore neglecting the baby's health. She knew that Buffy would not be happy at all if she knew.
"Okay." She conceded quietly. "But...you will tell me when she's back...right?"
"I will notify you when she's brought back to the room. Try not to worry, as soon as we know anything else, we'll let you know."
There wasn't much else she could say to that, so she gently placed a parting kiss on her wife's left hand. "See you later." She whispered quietly, to responsive ears, then allowed herself to be lead from the room.
"Well." Dr. Greene said, after watching the women leave. "Let's see if we can give that young lady the miracle she craves. What do you say?"
He thought his overtired mind was playing tricks on him when he heard a whispered, "Ready when you are, Doc." He shook his head to clear it, thinking that his imagination had run wild. Casting one last look at the woman in the bed, he imagined a ghost of a smile playing over the blonde's lips, as if she were sharing a joke with him. Feeling jumpy, and not a little unnerved, he left the room to start the proceedings.
*****
Later that day, Dr. Greene was busy examining the X-rays that had just been brought back from the lab. Unfortunately, they looked like they had been taken of a totally different person.
"Are you sure these are the x-rays taken from Buffy Summers?" he asked, looking back and forth between two very differen't looking sets of x-rays. It was almost like looking at a before and after picture...only more pronounced.
"I'm positive, Doctor Greene." An aide replied, casting a nervous glance at the chart holding the patient's name. Misplaced lab reports didn't exactly look good on a person's record.
Dr. Greene shook his head, mystified by what he was seeing. Sure he had expected some reduction in the swelling and bruising that had completely filled the skull in the first x-ray, but it should have been nothing like he was seeing now. The first was taken as a prime example of a coma patient that was barely alive. The second was a portrait of a body actively and aggresively repairing itself.
It was no wonder the supply of nutrients found in Buffy's blood stream was so low. Her body was using them all to heal itself. He'd have to increase the nutrients that was presently filling her IV to meet the requirements demanded from her body, but if this rapid rate of healing kept its steady pace...for all intents and purposes she should come out of it by late tonight, or sometime in the early hours of the morning. What happened after that was anybody's guess.
He looked forward to telling Buffy Summer's family the good news...and maybe then they could answer a few questions of his own.
*****
Willow was sleeping restlessly when Dr. Greene entered her hospital room. Joyce and Sheila had been sitting in the corner chatting quietly when he had entered but had become quiet as soon as they noticed him standing in the entryway. He didn't allow himself to speculate about what they had been discussing, finding that line of thought entirely too unprofessional, and put his other questions to the back of his mind for the moment.
Joyce eyed him anxiously, wondering what the tests had revealed about the condition of her daughter. "Are the tests back?" She asked, her voice soft. She didn't want to wake Willow unless she absolutely had to.
"Yes, they are." Something in the way he said that caused Joyce to pick her ears up in interest. Something had changed. Something was different. And she got the feeling that the change was going to be good.
It didn't take long for Sheila, who had laid a hand on her daughter's arm, to wake her up. She swam out of the light doze with hardly any awareness that she had done so, until she looked over and saw the Doctor standing there.
"Is it Buffy?" Willow asked, as she sat up abruptly in the bed, brushing off a slight feeling of dizziness. "Is she okay?"
Seeing the worry on the Red-head's face, Dr. Greene rushed to reassure her. "She's fine. Actually, she's more fine than I had anticipated."
Both Joyce and Willow felt an electric shock flow down their spines. They stared at the Doctor in anticipation, trying hard not to look at each other. They each knew what the other was thinking...they just needed the Doctor to confirm it.
Dr. Greene watched their emotions flicker, curiously, almost feeling like he was swimming in a fish bowl, under the leer of a hungry cat. "I told you I'd let you know as soon as the lab reports came back what her condition was. The truth is...they were a bit surprising. And, it took me a little while to believe what I was seeing."
He looked at them, seeing matching expressions of confusion highlighting their faces, but somehow he got the feeling that the confusion was feigned. "She's healing at a much faster rate than I expected...in fact most patients in her condition wouldn't have recovered as nearly as quickly as what the X-rays have shown."
"Cut to the chase Doctor." Joyce said, strung out by the anticipation. "How is my daughter?"
"Well, I can tell you, that the swelling has gone down, the hemotoma has all but disappeared, and even the crack in her skull appears to be mending itself." Joyce and Willow simply stared at him, conscious of every breath. "If all goes well, and she suffers no setbacks, I estimate that she will wake up either late tonight or early tomorrow morning."
"In the meantime, we will be giving her more nutrients...her body appears to be depleting her supply faster than we can give them to her..." The Doctor continued talking, but his words fell on deaf ears as the two people that loved Buffy the most let out loud whoops of joy, and hugged each other joyfully. "I knew that she was going to be all right." Joyce said, feeling happy tears slip down her face.
"I can't wait to see her beautiful blue eyes looking at me." Willow murmured, all but forgetting the presence of the Doctor.
Dr. Greene smiled, allowing them to have their moment, then grew serious as he cleared his throat, waiting until he got their attention before continuing. "I know Buffy has made a lot of progress in a very short period of time, and that has us very optimistic about her continued path towards getting well, but I also don't want to fool you into thinking that her recovery is going to be painless."
That received their undivided attention again, and they sat in rapt silence waiting for him to continue. "While it is true that Buffy has passed one major hurdle in just coming this far, we won't know how much damage the swelling has already done to her brain until she wakes up."
Fingers tightened painfully around Joyce's wrist causing her to look down at the white knuckled grip Willow had on her. "I wouldn't be telling you this if I didn't think it was important to prepare you for any eventuality. Buffy suffered a great blow to the head and as a result of that she might not come out of the coma the same Buffy as when she went in." Dr. Greene clarified, allowing his words to sink in.
"Like what, Doctor?" Joyce asked, finally.
"She might suffer anything from paralysis, mood swings, erratic behavior, short term to wide spread amnesia or some form of mental illness or instability."
He could see the devastation on their faces, hating that part of his job where he had to state the worst. "I'm sorry to have to tell you like this, but I didn't want to trick you into thinking that the worst is over. Buffy still has a long way to go in her recovery process."
"Buffy's good at dealing with pain...or anything that's thrown at her." Willow replied calmly, thinking about all of the times Buffy had pulled herself out of the land of hurt she was in and fought back. "She can handle it. But what are her chances of coming out without any of these hindrances?"
"Like I said before, it's hard to tell what the outcome is going to be...but with the amount of damage she has to overcome...I'd say her chances of waking up completely healed, without any kind of long term problems are pretty slim."
The mood over the room was decidedly somber now. Willow felt like she had just played the good news/bad news game and it left her feeling overwhelmed. Buffy was definitely going to wake up...sometime during the night...that was the good news. The bad news was Willow didn't know if it would be her Buffy waking up, or a somewhat dented facsimile of her.
*****
It was a pensive group that had gathered around Buffy's bed that night, waiting for some sign that the Slayer was awakening. Xander and Giles had been brought up to date on Buffy's condition, and now they, along with the rest of the group, waited for their Slayer to wake up, and the other shoe to fall.
Xander paced quietly around the room, casting long glances back at the bed every now and then, just to make sure he hadn't missed anything. Giles reflected that it was probably going to be a long night...every tick of the clock felt like an eternity to a small group that might have had better luck watching paint dry, than a young woman who might or might not awaken at any moment.
Willow just sat quietly by the bed, holding her wife and best friend's hand tightly to her chest while she waited for those beautiful eyes to open. Inanely, she thought of a song that she had absolutely loved as a child...a song from Pete's Dragon that she would play over and over again, driving her parents crazy. It had somehow, always made her feel better, especially after the older kids had teased her mercilessly at school, that somewhere in the world there was a candle that shined brightly just for her. She had found that candle the day she had met Buffy, shining that light into the darkness and protecting her from the shadows that she had unknowingly mingled with. Now, it was her turn to be Buffy's candle, and no matter what happened she knew that she would help her to see through the darkness surrounding her.
She found herself singing the song in a soft tone, not caring in the least if the other's heard her.
"I'll be your candle on the water. My love for you will always burn. I know you're lost and drifting, but the clouds are lifting. Don't give up you have somewhere to turn.
I'll be your candle on the water. Till every wave is warm and bright. My soul is there beside you. Let this candle guide you. Soon you'll see a golden stream of light.
A cold and friendless tide has found you. Don't let the stormy darkness pull you down. I'll paint a ray of hope around you, circling in the air...lighted by a prayer.
I'll be your candle on the water. This flame inside of me will grow. Keep holding on, you'll make it. Here's my hand so take it. Look for me reaching out to show, As sure as rivers flow...I'll never let you go."
Her mother smiled, recognizing the song instantly and placed a gentle hand on one shoulder. Joyce simply recognized the meaning behind the words, and the gentle tranquility of the tune. She too placed a loving hand on Willow's other shoulder, both lending their support. Willow smiled through her tears, feeling the circle of love spreading throughout the room as Giles and Xander came over to the edge of the bed adding their support to the small group.
As the night wore on into early morning, Willow began to wonder if the Doctor's estimate had been accurate. She cast an inquiring look over at the man who stood waiting in the doorway. "Talk to her." He advised, quietly. "Let her follow your voice back home."
Willow gulped, feeling a little apprehensive as she studied the face of her love. "It's time to wake up." She started, haltingly. "Everybody misses you. Giles misses having somebody around that he can scold. Xander misses having you throw him on his butt. Your mom misses the way you used to sneak out of the house when you were supposed to be sleeping."
Willow heard her family chuckling behind her, but she kept her focus on Buffy's face. "I might be a little presumptuous, but I think I miss you the most." Nobody said a word at that, all knowing that it was probably true. "I need you, Buffy. I love you. Please come back to me."
She waited a few more seconds, studying her wife's face for any sign of life...a blink, a twitch...anything. When nothing was forthcoming more moments later, Willow looked helplessly and hopelessly over at the doctor, nearly missing the collective gasp that went around the room.
She swiveled her head back around quickly, feeling a jolt go through her as she was locked in the vibrant blue gaze that stared back at her. They examined her quite thoroughly, as if they didn't quite know what to make of her. Then she felt them lift as they scanned the entire room, and every face in it.
"Buffy?" Willow whispered, regaining Buffy's attention.
A blonde eyebrow furrowed in a somber face as Willow felt herself being examined once more. Finally the blonde
spoke, in a voice hoarse from lack of use. "I'm sorry. Who are you?"
*****