“All right, Miss Summers, looking good. I think…”
Buffy didn’t wait for the doctor to finish before speaking up, eagerly; “Great! When can I go home?”
Dr. Backer gave her a stern look. “I was going to say, before you interrupted me, that you probably won’t have to stay too long, but I’m keeping you here at least until tomorrow morning. Then we’ll see.” Buffy pouted, which he simply chose to ignore. “I’ll be back to check on you later tonight. Until then, I suggest you try to get some more rest.” With that, Dr. Backer looked around the room and smiled politely, then hurried away to go check on another one of his patients.
Buffy sighed and leaned back against the pillows. “I don’t wanna stay here until tomorrow. I really don’t like hospitals.”
Anya nodded, sympathetically. ”I know what you mean – hospitals sucks. With all the sick people, and the dying and…”
“Anya! Not helping!” Willow turned to Buffy with an assuring smile. “It won’t have to be that bad. We’ll all stay here; it’ll be like a slumber party. A slumber party with cute doctors!”
“And drugs!” Anya piped up, helpfully.
Rolling her eyes, Buffy couldn’t help but smile a little. “Thanks, guys. I’m really glad you all came here, it means a lot to me.”
“Of course we did, sweetie.” Tara was about to say something more, when Xander suddenly came back into the room.
“Hey, Buff! Spike went back to the library to talk to Giles, but he said to tell you that he’d be back here as soon as possible.” Then he stepped over to Anya and wrapped his arms around her, and she happily leaned into his touch.
Trying to hide her disappointment, Buffy put on a brave smile. “That’s cool. Hey, Xander, you didn’t…” She hesitated before she went on; “You didn’t tell him about Riley, did you?”
Xander let out a nervous laugh, looking down at his feet, clearly not wanting to look Buffy in the eyes. “No?”
Buffy glared at him, suspiciously. “Xander? How much did you tell him?”
Sighing, Xander gave in, not wanting to lie. “Oh, not much.” A pause. “Just everything you told us.” He could see that Buffy was about to start yelling at him, so he hurried to add; “But it’s okay, really. I mean, sure, Spike was pissed, and if Riley’d been here, he’d probably not gotten away from this hospital alive, but…” He laughed a little, then became serious. “I’m only making things worse, aren’t I?”
It had started to rain about ten minutes ago, and now it was pouring. Riley was getting more and more annoyed by the minute. He’d been standing on the road next to his car for almost an hour, and so far, not a single car had stopped. He needed to get out of Sunnydale, and he needed to do it now. For all he knew, Buffy could be talking to the cops right now. The bitch would probably tell them that he’d pushed her down the stairs, and then it would only be a matter of time before they’d come after him. The longer away from Sunnydale he’d be by then, the better.
He couldn’t help but feel a little guilty, though. He knew that whether he’d pushed Buffy or not, the accident was still partly his fault. If he hadn’t showed up, then it wouldn’t have happened. But then on the other hand, if Buffy hadn’t been at Spike’s in the first place, it wouldn’t have happened either. Riley felt anger welling up inside him again. When he thought about it again, he became convinced that it really was Buffy’s fault after all. She should’ve known better than spending the night with some guy she hardly knew. Or more importantly; some guy that wasn’t him.
But right now, the only thing he cared about was getting himself out of this mess. He’d go back to LA, and hopefully never have to see or talk to Buffy Summers again. That was, if anyone would ever stop and help him. He thought about go standing in the middle of the road, forcing the next car to stop, but the thought of getting run over wasn’t too appealing. Another car passed him, and Riley was just about to leave his car and start walking – in which direction, he had no idea – when the other car suddenly slowed down and pulled over to the side of the road. When the driver opened the front door, Riley smiled to himself. It looked like his luck had returned.
Spike was driving through town, completely ignoring the speed limits. He was urgent to get back to Giles and tell him what happened, and then hurry back to Buffy. It was probably a good thing he didn’t know where to find Riley, or he might do something he’d come to regret later. Xander had told him that – according to Buffy – it had all been an accident, but Spike didn’t care. Intentional or not, the git was the one who had caused Buffy to fall down the stairs, and for that, Spike wanted to kill him. He had been furious when he’d found out that Riley had hired someone to check up on him, but that was nothing compared to how he felt towards Buffy’s ex now.
Spike didn’t know if Riley had waited until the ambulance had arrived before taking off like the miserable little coward he was. It didn’t make any difference, though. He hadn’t even had the decency to go with Buffy to the hospital; he had just left. The mere thought of Buffy not making it was almost more than Spike could handle, but he knew that if that had been the case, he would have tracked Riley down, wherever he was. Then he would have killed him, without giving the consequences a second thought.
At first he didn’t react when he saw the car on the side of the road, not until he’d already passed it and looked back in the rear-view mirror. Then he did a double take, frowned, and slowed down before pulling over. It would be too much of a coincidence, it couldn’t be…? But it was. Riley Finn, the person responsible for the accident that could have killed the love of his life, was standing at the side of the road, no more than a hundred and fifty feet away. With a grim expression on his face, Spike opened the door and stepped out of the car.
TBC