Victims
by Salix
Responsibility
[reviews]
When Buffy came to she was vaguely aware of being wrapped up in something warm, and soft. She smiled at the feeling of safety that she got but then the searing pain kicked in and she jumped up from where she had been laying and landed very ungraciously on the floor. She fell onto her ass and opened her eyes, but regretted at as soon as she did it because a white hot pain started to shoot through her head. She felt the warmth again, kneeling down beside her, she could hear it trying to talk to her but she couldn't make out the words. She felt herself being lifted off of the floor and placed onto a nice, comfortable surface.
She hurt all over, there wasn't one part of her body that didn't feel like it had been hit with a large blunt object. She felt tired as well, like she had been up for days, but it had only been a couple of minutes. She tried to remember what had happened to her, but her memory wasn't cooperating with her at the moment. She took a couple of deep calming breaths, trying to stay calm as the pain in her back only got worst.
She felt a cool liquid being poured into her mouth and she spit it out, not knowing what it was, but it was only replaced by more. After five times of spitting but only getting more she finally gave in a swallowed the cool liquid. She felt it run down her throat and after about fifteen minutes she started to feel a little better. She tried opening her eyes again but she got the same effect as before. So she just laid there, engulfed in pain, but surrounded by the warm comfort.
She got her breathing to go back to normal, but it felt harder to breath, like there was something wrong with her chest. She didn't know what had happened to her and as much as she wanted to know she also just wanted to lie there and stay in this comfortable warmth all day long, or all night, whatever time it is, she doesn't know. Then she started to hear voices. They sounded concerned, and worried and it took her a few minutes to be able to figure out what they were saying.
"A popped lung? Well then shouldn't we take her to the hospital? That sounds seriousness enough to be hospital worthy," she heard Xander say, or at least she thought it was Xander, the voices were still kind of muffled.
"No, no. Her slayer healing should fix that up in a day or two. She'll need plenty of rest in the mean time. No slaying until then. That'll probably make her happy," she heard what sounded like Giles say. She tried to move, to tell him that she needed to get up, that she needed to go find that demon, but she couldn't.
"What do we do with Amber? Who's going to look after her? With Buffy so beat up like this... there's no one else strong enough Giles. If that thing was able to hurt Buffy this badly, I can't even imagine what it could do to us," Buffy heard the warmth say, her Willow say. She tried to smile when she realized that the comfort she was getting was from the love of her life, but it hurt too bad to smile and she winced at the pain. She felt Willow softly rubbing her cheek and she relaxed.
"Anya said she'd look into it," Giles said and every muscle in Buffy's body tried to move to her to jump up to object to Anya taking care of the little baby. It wasn't Anya's job to protect her, it was Buffy's. Anya is just a human now, a very smart and tactless, sometimes annoying, egocentric, capitalist human, but still just a human. She couldn't protect that baby from the demon even if she tried.
"No, I'm the slayer. I'll take care of her, Amber's my responsibility. Give her back," Buffy said, but they couldn't understand her. Her jaw was too swollen for any of them to understand what she was saying. She felt Willow start to slowly caress her cheek again, and she also noticed that her body wasn't in so much pain. Probably from whatever they had forced down her throat earlier.
"Will you guys head out now? I'll show up at the Magic Box tomorrow for research, but I need to get her cleaned up. Call me as soon as you find out what Anya is going to do with Amber, ok?" she asked and they both agreed and then left. As soon as the door was shut she felt Willow let go of her and then walk somewhere else in the room. She heard what sounded like drawers being opened and then closed, and then she heard Willow walk back over to the bed and sit down. "God Buffy, what did he do to you?" She felt herself being lifted up and her shirt was removed.
"This is gonna sting a little," she heard Willow tell her. Then she felt a cold cloth being pressed up against her skin. She winced from the pain of the hydrogen peroxide doing itself damage on her wounds. Ok, well it felt like it was doing damage, even if it was going to help fight off infection. When Willow was done with the front half of her she was carefully rolled over onto her stomach and she heard Willow wince. Where her injuries that bad? Buffy screamed out when she felt the peroxide touch a certain spot on her back.
She heard Willow wince out of sympathy but she continued to clean up the blonde's back, and the backs of her legs and her butt. There wasn't a spot on Buffy that didn't have either a bruise or a small cut. There was a very large spot on her back that had been caused by a very large splinter that had gone deep enough to put a small hole in one of her lungs. When she finished cleaning the slayer's feet, she went and got the bandages, and the needle and thread. She started to stitch up the deeper cuts and then she put bandages over the rest. Then she dressed Buffy in the silk pajamas that Willow had gotten her a couple of weeks ago. She figured that the fabric would be light enough to not irritate any of the blonde's wounds.
When she was done with that she started to clean up the room. Throwing away the wrappers of the now used bandages, she put the bottle of peroxide back under the sink, she threw the rag into the hamper and then she changed for bed. She slowly picked Buffy up, wincing in sympathy whenever Buffy would wince or cry out in pain, and she put her under the covers, gently flipping her over so that she was lying on her back. She then crawled under the covers herself, but she didn't touch her lover. They usually snuggle at night when they sleep, they find comfort in each other's touch, but tonight Willow didn't want to cause the blonde anymore pain.
"God Buffy, what did he do to you?" she asked for the second time that night. She carefully leaned over and placed a feather soft kiss on Buffy's swollen lips and then she laid her head back down on her pillow. She looked over at her lover one more time, before rolling over onto her side, facing away from Buffy and crying herself to sleep. If she had been looking while she was crying she would have noticed the tear drops working their way out of the closed eyes of the slayer and softly running down her face only to be caught in her bloodstained hair.
When she woke up the next morning, Buffy felt a little better but she still felt like she was dying. She hurt all over, she was sore all over, her muscles were tight and she felt like she needed to move around, but when she tried she only got pain in response. She opened her eyes but then quickly closed them when there was the blinding pain again. But she opened them and forced them to get used to the light and her surroundings. She looked over to her left and saw Willow lying next to her, she was in a fetal position, facing Buffy, and she was twitching around a little bit. The blonde could tell just by looking at her that she didn't have a restful sleep. The two women are just too used to being in each other's arms at night so for Willow to be denied that...Buffy didn't know how she managed to fall asleep in the first place.
"Willow," she tried to say but her voice was raspy and barely there. She could tell that slayer healing has done her well, her face doesn't feel so swollen, and she could actually move her jaw around. Now if she could only get a drink of water then she'd be able to get her voice back a little sooner, and help get rid of this pain in her throat. She carefully brought her hand up and lightly touched Willow's face. "Willow. Will, wake up." She started to lightly caress the redhead's face and that seemed to rouse her a little, but it's harder to wake her up then that. If she hasn't had a good night's sleep then waking up the redhead in the morning is like waking a child, they just never want to cooperate with you.
"No, five more minutes," she mumbled absently and then rolled over onto her other side. Buffy was a little peeved, she tried not to be, but she really needed to pee, and she knew she wasn't going to be able to get up by herself. She sighed heavily and tried anyway. She slowly sat up, wincing the entire time, and she tried to scoot forward on the bed, she was trapped between Willow's body and the wall. But if she could just scoot forward then she'd be able to put her legs over the foot of the bed and stand up that way. She was able to do just that without waking Willow up, which was good because she really didn't want the redhead fussing over her.
She made it to the bathroom and everything was fine, until she walked back out into the hallway and collapsed. Some of the people around her looked down at her, confused and concerned. One of the guys offered to help but she waved him off. He backed off a little, he stood next to her and watched and when she tried to get up but couldn't, he gently picked her up and carried her to her dorm room. She painfully told him that the door wasn't locked and he quickly opened it, and rushed her inside. He didn't know about the sleeping redhead before he opened the door, so he wasn't quiet as he entered the room. He walked over to the unoccupied bed and set the blonde down.
Willow woke up and took a look around, a little confused. Then she saw the guy...Mark from her Sociology class?...kneeling in front of Buffy, who was sitting on her own bed, instead of lying in bed with Willow like she was supposed to be. She jumped out of the bed and was instantly at Buffy's side. She was looking at the blonde with concern, and worry chiseled all over her face.
"Oh my God, Buffy are you ok?" she asked and sat down next to her. She gently wrapped an arm around the small of Buffy's back, and sat really close to her, making sure not to touch her because of her wounds, but sitting a lot closer then two people who are just friends, would sit. Buffy didn't say anything, she just nodded her head. She angrily wiped away the tear that tried to make its way down her cheek.
"Found her in the hall, she fell, couldn't stand back up. What the hell happened to her?" the guy asked. He sounded concerned and a little mad. Willow thought it was sweet that a guy they didn't even know, well in Willow's case she didn't know him very well, would want to help in some way. She looked over at him, and smiled a small, very forced but still real looking, smile.
"Listen Mark, she doesn't really want to talk about it right now. Thank you so much for bringing her back and helping her, I'm really glad you did. But could you leave please so that I can help her change her bandages?" she asked and he didn't protest. He said a short goodbye, offered to keep an eye on the dorm in case there was someone bothering the, Willow thanked him for the offer but turned him down, and then he left. She sighed deeply when he left, relieved that he didn't put up much of a fight or try to but in too much. She turned back to Buffy and was going to say something but then the phone started to ring. She frowned and walked over to the little side table and answered it.
"Hello?......Oh, hi Giles......Yeah she's up......Uh, she looks a lot better then yesterday. Did Anya ever get back to you guys?" she asked and that's when Buffy remembered that Anya was going to be taking care of Amber. As much as it pained her to do, she jumped up from the bed and took the phone out of Willow's hand. The redhead looked surprised and then pissed, but then she calmed down knowing that the blonde was just worried about the little girl.
"What did she do with her?" her voice was still raspy and barely there. Giles couldn't understand what she had said at all. He asked her to repeat herself, and she tried but her voice disappeared altogether. She walked over to their little mini-fridge and pulled out a bottle of water she chugged half of it before she tried again. "I said," her voice was hoarse and it didn't sound like Buffy at all. "What did Anya do with her?" She listened to his answer, or rather is non-answer. He doesn't know where the little girl is or the ex-vengeance demon for that matter.
"Well find out where she is Giles......No I will not calm down. I'm supposed to be taking care of Amber, not Anya......Yes I'm aware that I was unconscious and beaten to a bloody pulp......I don't care if Anya has more experience taking care of children, Amber is my responsibility now and I plan on taking care of her......I don't care that the demon will be after me now too, I have to take care of her " when she tried to yell her voice went flat and she had to cough a couple of times and drink some more water before she could get it back.
She thought she heard something in the background at Giles' house. Yes, she was sure of it, slayer hearing never lies. Anya's there now, she just got back from wherever she had gone. She listened and she could hear Amber as well, asking for something to drink. She heard someone else too, a woman that she's never met before, but from what she could hear she's friends with Anya. 'Oh God, she's a demon,' Buffy thought. "Tell Anya to stay there, don't let her leave with Amber." Buffy didn't even wait for a response before she hung up the phone and hobbled over to the dresser.
"What did he say? What are you doing? Buffy, you can't get dressed you have to stay here, in bed. You need to get better so we can find a way to kill that demon," Willow protested and tried to take the shirt Buffy had pulled out of the closet away from her. Buffy allowed her to take it, she just grabbed another one instead. She pulled it over her head really quick, her arm muscles protesting being lifted up so high. She didn't even bother with a bra, she just needed to get there and now before Anya left with the little girl. She tried to pull on her jeans but it hurt to much and it pulled at the bandages so she opted for sweat pants instead.
"Anya's there now with Amber. We have to go get her before Anya takes her away again. Listen Willow, this is really important to me, ok? And I know this isn't fair to you, but will you please help me take care of her? I can do it, just not by myself, not while I'm this beat up. I'm asking you, not as a headstrong slayer, but as your headstrong girlfriend, will you please help me take care of that little girl?" she asked and looked deeply into Willow's conflicted eyes.
One half of her wanted to help Buffy, that half thought that it would be fun to take care of a little kid, play house for a while, see what it might be like for when they have kids in the future. But the other half thought that it would be best for Anya to take care of her, and that half scared Willow very much. So she decided to play house, even though the scary side was firmly against it. But she ignored that side as she helped Buffy walk off of the campus and towards Giles' house, Buffy leaning against Willow the entire time because otherwise she wouldn't be able to walk as fast as they are now, which isn't very fast at all.
"Where is she? Where's Amber?" Buffy said as she and Willow waltzed into Giles' house. They didn't even bother with the knocking. They saw the rest of the scooby gang there, plus the little girl who was sitting in Anya's lap, and some woman that they didn't know. She had blue eyes, and curly brown hair and a big smile on her face. She looked way too chipper for nine o' clock in the morning, only Anya is that chipper, so this woman just has to be a demon.
"I have her right here Buffy," Anya said and smiled at her. She was being nice, she hadn't even commented on Buffy's looks yet. Which means she either wants something or they came up with a plan that Buffy isn't going to agree with and Anya is being nice to stay on Buffy's good side. But little do they know that Buffy's good side doesn't really exist right now. It's taken a vacation, along with her patience, they got a two for one deal on the cruise they're on.
Buffy looked over at the little girl. She seemed ok, she didn't look hurt or anything, a little tired, but other then that she seemed fine. Buffy noticed that she was staring at Willow. She wouldn't take her eyes off of the witch and Buffy couldn't help but wonder why. But she would think about all of that later. Right now she just needs to get Amber and get the hell out of here.
"Give her to me," she said and started to walk forwards, her arms out in front of her so that she could pick the little girl up. But Anya put a protective arm around the little girl and she shook her head. She looked over at Giles for help. She didn't want to say anything, just because the slayer is wounded it doesn't mean she's harmless. They watcher coughed, gaining Buffy's attention. She turned to him and glared at him with the one eye that she could open, the other was completely swollen shut.
"Buffy, please sit down, and we'll talk about this rationally," he said softly and waited but she didn't move. He decided not to push her and continued. "I know you're not going to be very...receptive, to this idea. Buffy, this is Halfreck," he said and motioned over to the unknown woman. Buffy looked at her, and the woman smiled and waved, she seemed friendly, that was a plus. "She's an old associate of Anya's." He was going to say more but Buffy cut him off.
"Meaning she's a demon. An evil, demon who probably kills or tortures people every day. Is she a vengeance demon? How could any of you even consider leaving a three-year-old with a vengeance demon? " she tried to yell but her voice would not allow it. It was said very angrily, and even though she went into a coughing fit afterwards she still had a little bit of an impact on Xander and Giles. Anya just got offended.
"Oh yes, and you're in much better condition to be taking care of child. That was sarcasm by the way. Just because she's a demon doesn't mean she doesn't know how to take care of a child. She could probably take better care of Amber then you ever could," Anya shot at her, becoming angrier as she spoke. The little girl was able to feel the tense and she didn't like Anya's tone one bit. She started to cry, which only caused the room to tense up even more. Anya tried to get her to rest her head on her shoulder but the little girl kept pushing her away. Finally she wriggled out of Anya's grasp, and she hopped down to the floor. She ran over to Willow and held her arms up, clasping and unclasping her fingers.
"Pick me up," she said and Willow hesitated a little bit. She's never really been around kids before, so this is all new to her. But she did as was requested and she bent down and picked the little girl up under her armpits and then propped her on her hip. She held her around the middle, like she's seen on T.V. and she was a little surprised when the girl buried her face in her neck, hiding from everyone else, getting some snot one Willow's neck in the process, causing the redhead to silently cringe at the gross feeling.
"Willow is going to help me, now where's her stuff?" Buffy asked, her voice stern. She backed up and stood over by Willow. She noticed that the other woman, Halfreck, was frowning a little. She could tell that she was about to say something so she just cut her off before she could. "Save it, I don't want to hear anything from a demon." She knew she was being a little unfair, judging the woman like this. She started to think back to Angel, he was part demon, and Oz too, and they were both great guys. But then she remembered that when you become a vengeance demon you have a choice, Angel and Oz didn't choose to become a vampire and a werewolf.
She was glad that they weren't putting up much of a fight. Xander walked over to the corner of the room and pulled out the stroller. He wheeled it over to them and then backed up. He was sad that Buffy wouldn't even consider listening to them. Their plan did make sense. Halfreck was going to take Amber to Arashmahar, and take care of her there, with the help from some of the other vengeance demons. Only vengeance demons are allow to go there so she would be safe from this other demon, whatever it is. They're still not sure what he is or how to stop him. Halfreck has been asking around but so far she's come up empty.
Amber didn't want to go back into the stroller so Willow carried her, and Buffy pushed the stroller, using it to help her balance. They still weren't sure what they were going to do. They couldn't keep her at the dorm room. For one thing it was too small, and a college campus with lots of partying students who are drunk some of the time is no place for a little kid. So, they started to walk towards Buffy's mom's house, knowing that the oldest Summers woman would not turn them away if they showed up with the little girl. Since no one was home, they let themselves in.
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Ok, so there's your update. I'm sorry it took so damn long to get it written. I'll start working on the next one and get that to you as soon as possible. So, what do you think so far?