Chapter 23 - Injured
Those hospital visits was becoming way too regular for Buffy’s liking.
In just a few days, she and Spike had been spending several hours at the same hospital – as worried each time. It reminded Buffy of the time when her mother had had a brain tumor. The visits in and out of the hospital made her crazy. She was barley twenty and had to act like she was much older. It was hard, but her mom made it through.
But since then, Buffy had developed a not too friendly feeling towards hospitals that made her even now, five years later, feeling very uncomfortable.
Spike sat beside her, ironically, in the same chair they had been sitting in the last time they were there and the feelings were pretty much the same. She didn’t know how Spike felt exactly but by the way he kept clasping his hands together tightly she assumed he was as nervous as she was.
Deciding to try and comfort him she put her hand over his and he froze his clasp and unclasp movements. Buffy took one of his hands in her and squeezed it gently. She felt that his hands were cold as she traced the length of his hand with her fingers. He smiled sadly at her.
“I’m sorry for bringing you into this,” he told her and Buffy frowned.
“Stop making excuses, Spike. If I didn’t want to be here I probably wouldn’t. But I am.” Spike glanced down at their entwined hands. “Isn’t that telling you something?”
Spike nodded. “Yeah. It is.” He bit his lip and decided to change the subject. “How long since the doctor was out here?”
Buffy glanced at the clock on the wall and sighed. “Twenty minutes. They’re still doing the examination.”
“I hate waiting,” Spike complained and Buffy could do nothing but agree. This was hell, sitting and waiting. Imagining the worst scenario…
The way to the hospital had been horrible. Buffy’s heart beat so fast she thought it was something wrong when Spike had carried Lily out to his car and driven off to the hospital. Buffy had been placed in the backseat with Lily in her arms, whispering comforting words to the barley conscious girl. Buffy hadn’t had the heart to ask her what happened, not when she just got away from the horrible place that was her home.
That was probably a good thing, she thought with a sight. As much as she wanted to know what happened back there to be able to help her and get Mr. Simmons in jail, it was better to let it be.
Buffy glanced up just in time to see the doctor coming towards them. She nudged Spike in the side and he snapped his head up. As the doctor approached them with that special comforting smile they stood up.
“Are you relatives of Lily Simmons?” The doctor asked.
Buffy looked at Spike who seemed to think it over for a moment before shaking his head. “No. I’m… I’m her teacher.”
The doctor nodded understanding. “Have you tried to contact her parents?”
Spike couldn’t help but let out a little scoff. The doctor raised a questioning eyebrow in response.
“Don’t think so, doc. Her father was the one who did this to her,” Spike explained.
The doctor with the nametag Anne Burke’s eyes widened as she took in the information. “Has this been confirmed? Are you sure that it was her father who did this?”
Spike nodded before stopping, glancing at Buffy for a second. Truth to be told, they couldn’t know for certain if it really had been Mr. Simmons who hurt Lily. After all, they had no evidence until Lily told them her side of the story and it wasn’t sure that that would be proof enough either.
“Well…” Spike began. “We think so. Mr. Simmons he… He was acting really strange and didn’t want us to visit Lily. He ran away when he got the chance.”
Anne Burke nodded and seemed to think it over for a moment. She scratched her eyebrow before speaking. “Have you contacted the police? Otherwise we need you to make a report.”
“I called the police on the way over here,” Buffy told her. “It has already been taken care of. What about Lily?” She continued, really wanting to know now about Lily. She didn’t care about the childish impatient turn her voice took.
“Lily will be fine, but she’s in pain though,” she continued before Spike and Buffy had a chance to interrupt her. “She’s been through a lot and she’s tired, she’s been given some morphine to help her get some rest.”
Spike swallowed, trying to find the right words as he crossed his hands over his chest. “Is… will the… The wounds – “
He was at loss of words but Anne seemed to see the problem and answered him. “She has a broken leg and a lot of cuts over her body. The wounds will heal eventually,” she continued, “Although, my guess would be that this does not end after her wounds have healed. She’ll be scarred from the events, whatever happened to her, and I’d suggest her to go in therapy.”
“Will that help?” Buffy asked and the doctor.
“Probably, at least it will help her into the right direction. Lily is still so young.”
“Was she…” Buffy started but found it hard to say the words and shifted uncomfortable from foot to foot. “Do you know if she – “
Once again, Dr. Burke saw their troubled faces and answered the question with a shake of her head. “No. There is no sign on sexual assault.”
Buffy glanced at Spike as her shoulders sagged in relief. “When can we see her?”
“We want her to get some sleep before she will be up for visitors but I’ll inform you when she is awake. Though, I have to ask you,” Dr. Burke said getting closer and clutching the paperboard to her chest. “Was it her father only or do you know if the mother was involved?”
Buffy let Spike answer that question since she didn’t even know if Lily’s mother was still in the picture.
Spike shook his head. “No. I think Lily mentioned at some point that her mother left a few years ago. From what I know of she hasn’t been in any kind of contact with her since.”
Dr. Burke nodded. “Since she is her legal guardian after all, I’d like to get in touch with her to inform her what happened here. Do you know where we could get in touch with her?”
“I’m sorry, no,” Spike said before coming up with an idea. “But I do know she has an aunt, on the mother’s side living nearby. I could try to contact her.”
“Thank you,” the doctor smiled. “That would be great.”
Although, that seemed to be a harder task than they had thought. The aunt, who’s name was Maggie Evans, had a unlisted number and none of the persons Spike called had it.
After several calls, hours later they were just about to give up when a cousin to Maggie called Spike. Apparently, the cousin had heard from another relative that a certain William Giles was searching for the number of Maggie Evans.
The triumph of finding the aunt didn’t last long though.
She told them that she had no contact with her sister since she left her family four years ago. No number, no address… Nothing. The mother of Lily was nowhere to be found.
Spike had to tell her what was wrong with Lily and the aunt was in deep shock to hear about Mr. Simmons who had always been so at ease, kind and loving according to Maggie.
“Is there anything I can do to help you?” Maggie asked, still overwhelmed by the news about her niece.
“Not from what I know of right now, thank you, Mrs. Evans,” Spike told her. “I appreciate your help, the doctor just wanted to inform your sister about her daughter’s condition and get her a place to live at but as it seems right now even if she would’ve been here, she wouldn’t be offering it, would she?”
Maggie let out a long sigh. “I’m afraid I have to tell you no. My old sister would never have done this, but I don’t know the new one. But I promise you that I will try to contact her if I get the chance. I give you my word.”
Spike smiled slightly. “Thank you. Well, I should get in touch with the doctor and tell her about the situation…”
“Wait!” The aunt called out. “Where is the poor girl going to live?”
Spike sighed and ran a hand through his hair. “I don’t know. I guess she will be staying at the hospital for a few days but after that I don’t know.”
“She could stay at my house,” Maggie offered. “It’s small, very small, but if it’s just for a while I’ll be able to give her a place to live.”
“I think Lily would appreciate that,” Spike said. “I’ll get back to you.”
“No need to, I’m on my way to the hospital right now.”
“Good, I’ll see you then.”
Spike disconnected the call and sat down on one of the chairs with a long sigh. Spike leaned forward and rested his arms on his knees. “What a mess…”
“I second that.”
Spike looked up to see Buffy standing in front of him with two cups of the incredibly horrible coffee the hospital offered. He couldn’t help but let the corner of his lips twitch up at the sight of her. Buffy returned the smile and sat down beside him.
“No luck?” She asked as she gave him the cop.
He took his and shook his head. “No sign of the mother, but the aunt offered to take care of Lily for a while. She’s on her way over here.”
“Good,” Buffy said, then she leant back in the chair with a frown settled on her face. “I still can’t believe Mr. Simmons did that to her. It’s unbelievable. I mean, what could the girl possibly have done?”
“I have no idea, but if the man was on drugs and drunk on top of it…”
Buffy nodded. “Yeah, but still… He seemed to show no remorse at all. What was he going to do? Let her stay in her room until the wounds had healed? Until she could walk again?”
Buffy’s temper was rising as she thought about the man in question. She could not understand how anyone could do that, especially not to his own child. She felt her heart ache for the pain the girl was going through as she shook her head.
“It’s unbelievable…“
“It’s touching you care so much about her,” Spike said, offering her a small smile which she couldn’t deny.
“Well, of course,” Buffy said, thinking it was obvious she cared for her. Not only because she worked with children her age and older, but that she had come to like the girl so much. “I care about her.”
“I don’t know many people who’d do so much to help a person they’ve barley met. You’re incredible, you know that?”
Buffy felt herself blush and let her eyes fall to her feet before smiling. “You’re not so bad yourself,” she mumbled. “But I’ve already told you that.”
“Yeah,” he smiled. “Yeah, you have.”
He leant forward, the smile still plastered on his face, and was just about to touch her lips with his when they were interrupted by a voice in front of them. They broke apart in embarrassment as they noticed Dr. Burke standing in front of them.
She couldn’t help but let a small smirk appear on her lips at the sight in front of her. “I just wanted to let you know that Lily is awake.”
The couple’s eyes widened as they stood up. “Can we see her?” They asked at the same time and let exchanged an amused smile.
“She wants to see you both,” Dr. Burke told them. “Follow me.”
Lily had been freshened up by a nurse and she looked a lot better now than she had when Buffy found her in the bed. She still had cuts and wounds over her face and also on her arms though. It didn’t look as bad as it had once at least.
Her eyes were tired and her eyelids were swollen and covering the most of her eyes. But when they walked inside the room a smile lit up on her face and Buffy felt her heart flutter a the small gesture.
None of them brought up the subject about her dad, not what he had done or not done… Not until the Spike’s cell phone started to ring anyway. He frowned at the unknown ID that was shown on the display.
“William Giles?” A voice asked.
“Yeah, that’s me. Who’s this?”
“My name is Officer Atherton,” the man said and Spike’s eyes widened. He stood up and made an excusing look towards Buffy as he made his way out of the room.
“What can I do for you, Officer?” Spike asked, his voice almost trembling.
“A Miss Buffy Summer called earlier on this number and reported Tony Simmons for abusing his daughter, is that right?”
“Yeah,” Spike mumbled. “She did.”
“I thought I’d let you know that we caught him, just a few miles away. He was driving apparently drunk and we suspect he is affected by drugs. Mr. Simmons is now on his way to custody.”
Spike threw a look through the window into Lily’s room and caught the picture of the girl, lying in the bed with Buffy sitting beside her and breathed out a sigh of relief. “Thank you.”
Hope you feel like Spike is right now :) Please review and let me know what you think :)
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Author's Chapter Notes:
I don't have a lot of time so I'll be short and just say thank you all so much for the reviews! :) Keep 'em coming because it really makes me want to write more :) I wrote two chapters this weekend when I saw all the reviews! All the best to Chriss for being my beta, too. Now, I'll let you read... :)