'She cried when I told her you were off again this morning.' (Nelly)
'Well, I cried last night,' he returned, 'and I had more reason to cry than she.' (Heathcliff)
William woke confused and groggy. The last thing he remembered was being helped from the car and into Dru's over-the-garage apartment. Dru's face had hovered over him and she'd gently opened his lips and pressed something small into his mouth. "Take this, my sweet boy and you'll sleep away the pain." He swallowed reflexively.
Bits and pieces and snatches of conversation swirled in and out after that, a male voice…maybe that guy Devon saying, "You sure you want to do that? I don't think-". Then Dru saying something unintelligible and an unidentifiable female voice, "Hey, we don't tell you how to play! Go on…"
Then nothing. Until now. He took a deep breath. Even that hurt. He brought a hand to his head, his scalp felt...funny somehow, raw and tingly. Flashes of the fight came back to him and he wondered if he'd hit his head. He remembered what he'd said to Buffy and groaned.
Why was everything still so blurry? 'Oh yeah, right, glasses broke,' he thought. Suddenly, the reason he'd been out in the first place came back to him. He bolted upright. 'Mum. Have to get to the hospital. Wonder what time it is. Stupid git, getting drunk and passing out, probably worrying Jenny to death.' He berated himself mentally as he squinted and tried to force his still hazy brain to figure out how to get to his mother the fastest.
Beside him, Dru stirred lazily. "Are you up then, my Spike?" She said sleepily.
"Your…" It came back to him, "Don't call me that. It sounds like a dog's name." William swung his legs over the side of the bed. For a brief minute he thought he ought to be shocked waking up half dressed in the bed of a girl he barely knew, but all he could think about was his mother. "Erm…look, I need to bypass all of the conversation that should probably happen right now and skip directly to the part where I tell you that my mother is in hospital; I've apparently broken my glasses so I can't see; I left my car at the Bronze and if you could help me get to her, I'll be your slave for life." He rubbed his head and his hair felt strange too, it was sticking up in all directions. "Please. What time is it? Have you seen my mobile?"
Dru stretched and sat up. "Slave for life. I could use one of those," she said dreamily. Then waking up a little, she glanced at the clock, "It's a quarter to ten. Mobile…don't know, maybe over there on the chair with your shirt. Glasses - I'll see if I can drag Devon out of bed and get him to drive us to the mall. There should be a place there." She put her hand on his bare shoulder. "Mother in hospital - I'm sorry." She patted him comfortingly, "Clean up, mall, walk to the Bronze when you can see and pick up your car. Sound good?"
"Yeah." He scrubbed his hands through his hair again.
Dru got up, pointed him to the bathroom and continued on to Devon's room for the difficult process of waking her brother. He and Faith lay entwined on his bed, deeply asleep. She was saved waking them when a yell erupted from the bathroom and jolted them awake.
"What the BLOODY HELL?" William shouted.
"Oh, he's seen our surprise," Dru clasped her hands together and grinned. Faith snickered drowsily.
"Dru, get out of here," Devon growled, "and I told you you shouldn't have done that. Don't look to me to help you now."
"Faith helped!" Dru pouted. "Can't get out, dearest. Need you up and driving. It's an emergency of sorts." Dru prodded his shoulder, nudging him further awake.
Devon grumbled, but detached himself from Faith, who merely mumbled, turned and went back to sleep. "Oh, you so owe me," he said.
"Owe you kisses," Dru chirped and planted one on his cheek, leaving the room. "See you in fifteen minutes or so?"
"Yeah." Devon shook his head grumpily, as though trying to shake the remainder of sleepiness out.
Dru pushed the slightly ajar bathroom door open further and saw William, head in hands, hanging over the sink.
"Like it?" She asked.
He raised his head and looked at her in disbelief, seeing only a fuzzy Dru-shaped outline. "What the hell did you do?"
"Bleached it," Dru said matter-of-factly. "Looks better this way," she added helpfully. "Oz's leftovers. He changes his hair color a lot." She tilted her head at him thoughtfully, "Not that blue mightn't have looked good too…oh well."
"So you-" he shook his head, "No, you know what- I don't care right now. Don't have time. Could you find some clothes I could borrow? These are…" he looked in distaste at his jeans, "bloody, I think. Can't see her like this."
"I'll get you some. Here's a towel." Dru left the room.
William had called his aunt and groveled, apologizing profusely for making her worry and telling her about his glasses, although not how they'd been broken. He told her he'd be at the hospital as soon as he could see again. She was already at the hospital and assured him that nothing had changed with regard to his mother's condition and in fact, due to the drugs they had her on, his mother was drifting in and out of consciousness.
Now, he and Dru were waiting at the optometrist's. She'd insisted on staying with him. Saturdays seemed pretty busy, but he'd told the pleasant receptionist some of his situation and she'd managed to fit him in.
"Well, dear, she can take you now." The receptionist said, "But you know glasses take a few hours on busy days. Have you considered contacts? We can fit you for them and give you some samples to wear and take with you today while your order comes through."
William hesitated only a moment and then waved his hand, uncaring, "Whatever is fastest. Thank you very much for fitting me in."
The woman nodded and taking his newly filled out chart, led him into the examining rooms in the back.
He plunked his emergency credit card down on the counter. 'That was kind of expensive,' he thought, 'Had no choice, though. I'll pay it back somehow. May need a job, especially now…' He signed and handed the slip to the receptionist.
"I do hope your mother feels better soon, dear." She smiled at him and he weakly returned the smile.
He turned to Dru, waiting, if not patiently, then at least quietly, flipping through a children's magazine. He peered at her and saw she was looking at one of those 'find the hidden pictures' pages. She looked up at him and smiled. "Oh, my Spike, so handsome. Much better than those wretched glasses." She stood. "Bronze?"
"Don't call me that." William repeated wearily. "Yeah Bronze, let's go."
He liked the contacts. Even in his worried, distressed state, he could appreciate the peripheral vision improvement, though his face felt somehow naked without the glasses.
When they'd arrived at the hospital, Jenny had postponed any talk of punishment or questions about the previous night and his new hair until later. She thought the poor boy had been through enough. She'd offered to take Dru home for him, while he waited for his mother to awaken.
Dru had surprised him by leaving quietly with a very normal though unsolicited, hug and a light caress on his cheek. He still didn't know what to make of her, one moment a normal, seemingly sensitive girl and the next a mad chit who dyed strangers' hair while they were defenseless. He consciously postponed thinking about her until later.
The only thing that mattered now was his mother.
She lay still and fragile looking underneath the white hospital sheets. Her sharp cheekbones jutted out prominently under her papery, white skin. He wondered when she'd gotten so thin and how he hadn't noticed. He chastised himself for not knowing something was wrong earlier. Then he got angry at her all over again for not telling him about her illness. 'How could she keep that from me?' He'd bought a baseball cap to cover his now startlingly white hair and dull the shock a little for his mother, but he swept it off now and ran his hands through his hair as he always did when he was anxious.
Anne squinted. "Who are you?" She asked softly of the white haired stranger at her bedside.
He grasped her hand, "Mum, it's me, William. I'll explain later," he said hurriedly, not at all sure how he would manage that. "How are you feeling?"
She moved her dry lips slowly, "William." She spoke again, "Thirsty. I'm thirsty. Is there-"
"Here, Mum." He helped her to adjust the bed and pillows to sit up a little, poured a glass of water and held it to her lips.
She sipped the water he held for her and then turned her face slightly to the side to indicate she was finished. Her blue eyes cleared a little as the drugged sleep receded, "William," she looked at him, "You're hurt," she raised her hand to his brow and he saw her immediate anxiety.
"I'm ok, Mum. It's nothing." He said quickly, eyes silently begging her to drop it for now.
Gazing at his face, she said, "I'm so sorry I didn't tell you. I know this must be a shock to you and-"
"Why didn't you?" Tears formed in his eyes.
She sighed. "Well, the doctors were being grim about the whole thing. They weren't giving me very much hope. We decided it was best…then your father-" She looked down at her hands. "I didn't know how to tell you, darling. All I could do was move here. Jenny wanted to help us and I knew she'd be there for you if-"
"No! You aren't leaving me too!" He said fiercely. "You can't leave me, Mum. You can't-" His voice broke and he put his head in her lap, where her hands stroked her son's strange, newly white hair gently.
"I don't want to leave you, William." She said softly. "I haven't given up. I'd never leave you willingly, you know that." She paused, "But sometimes there are things beyond our control."
William was a boy, almost a man and he prided himself on his self control and strength.
He wept in his mother's lap.
Buffy was worried. Angel was in school. In the end, he hadn't been hurt severely, though his pride was considerably dented, which was probably the only reason he wasn't filing a charge against William. Riley had bumps and bruises from being knocked around, but was otherwise fine and also in attendance. William was the only one who had yet to make an appearance, which wasn't like him. He never missed school, was never even late. Could he have been hurt worse than he looked? She still couldn't believe he'd somehow survived, let alone won, a fight with both Angel and Riley.
She sat in the library during sixth period, tapping her foot anxiously. She'd known he probably wouldn't show up, the period was half gone now and he'd been so angry with her on Friday. But she'd come anyway and sat and waited to no avail.
She glanced around the room. 'Ah,' she thought, 'that redhead, that's the girl he was defending from Angel.' She frowned at the girl speculatively for a moment, said girl obliviously wrapped up in something on her laptop. She decided that finding out where William was was more important than wondering about what the girl was to him.
She crossed the room with confidence. "Hi." She sat down next to Willow. "You don't know me, I mean we've never talked, but well," Buffy paused, "this is going to sound weird, but I have a favor to ask you."
Willow looked up, startled. She knew, of course, who Buffy was, but couldn't think why the other girl would be talking to her. "Oh, um…hi. Favor?" She stammered, "Um, what uh, favor could I do for you?"
"You know William, right?" Buffy asked intently.
Willow nodded.
"Well, he's absent and I'm worried he might be…" Buffy didn't want to go into everything, "I'm worried about him. He's not in school and I need to know where he lives." She was uncertain whether he'd take a phone call from her now.
"Um…" Willow said, "I'm sorry, I don't know him all that well. I mean he sits with us, but I don't know where he lives."
Buffy patted the laptop meaningfully, "Yeah, but you're good with this, right? I mean, you can do stuff, find stuff…" She prompted Willow.
"Yeah, I mean, yeah." Willow said, "I can look up his address for you if you want."
Buffy wrinkled her nose, "Well, see that's the problem. I know he lives with his aunt, but I don't know her last name. So we can't just look him up. We'll need to look at his school records." She looked hopefully at Willow.
Willow flushed. "Umm…that would be wrong, wouldn't it? I mean, we could get in trouble-"
"No one will get in trouble. I just want to see if he's ok." Buffy stared at her, "Please. If you can-" she fumbled for the right words, "can't you hack into something or something like that?"
Willow was on firmer ground here. She studied Buffy warily, wondering if this was some sort of trick, but Buffy seemed sincere. "Well, I could," she said and saw the fleeting hope that surfaced in Buffy's eyes. "I could probably do that, but-"
"Oh please!" Buffy begged, thinking Willow was going to refuse. "I'm really worried about him. He never misses school."
"Well, I was just going to say that I could probably hack in, but that's not necessary. Mrs. Perry leaves her password on a post-it note on her monitor." She continued, frowning, "But I don't know how I could get to her computer without someone noticing."
"C'mon." Buffy motioned. "I'll ask Giles for some hall passes. You worry about the typing and I'll handle the distracting."
When they reached the office, Buffy put on her most disarming smile and said to the woman behind the desk, "Hi Mrs. Perry! Could you explain the difference between early action and early decision admissions again? I'm confused." She drew the woman off to the side and kept her occupied, while Willow quietly slipped in behind her to her desk. A few moments later it was done.
"Hey, thanks a lot for helping me sort that out, Mrs. Perry!" Buffy said quickly, wrapping it up. She grabbed Willow and they fled.
Willow had little difficulty persuading Xander to give them a ride to William's house after school. It was a nice sized nondescript grey house in a decent part of town with a well kept yard and lawn. Now they were parked in the driveway, Buffy hovering uncertainly by the opened car door.
"Um," she licked her lips nervously, not having gotten to this part of the plan yet. "I'll be right back. Thanks."
She knocked on the door and a dark haired woman answered.
"Mrs. Pratt?" Buffy asked politely.
"No. I'm Jenny Rayne. Are you a friend of William's?" Jenny asked.
"Yes." Buffy said to herself, 'I'm not lying! I am his friend, he just apparently doesn't know it.' She said, "I'm Buffy Summers. Is he in? He wasn't in school today and we wondered-"
Jenny's kind face looked tired and sad and she said, "He's at the hospital with his mother. He's been there for days and I can't get him to come home." She eyed the little blonde girl, "Perhaps you could persuade him to come home and at least sleep for awhile?"
"Oh! The hospital! Is she ok?" Buffy's face fell. "I'm so sorry. He's had-"
Jenny replied, "No. I'm afraid she isn't really ok."
Buffy's eyes filled with tears. "Poor William. Um, could you give me the hospital and-" She got the rest of the information and rushed back to the car to tell Willow and Xander.
Buffy stared at the figure hunched in the uncomfortable, molded plastic, hospital waiting area chair. He didn't look like the William she knew, with the hair, missing glasses and the rumpled shirt and baggy jeans that hung loosely on him. But she plucked up her nerve and headed towards him. He was still the boy who'd helped her, whatever he looked like. Now she would help him.
"William," she said, quietly touching his shoulder to get his attention.
He raised his head from his hand and looked at her without recognition for a moment.
"How's your mother?" She asked him softly.
He sighed and didn't question either her presence or knowledge of his mother's condition, just accepted both dully. "They took her for some tests. Be some time yet before they bring her back."
She took in his torn eyebrow and gaunt, exhausted face. The piercing look of desperation in his deep blue eyes made her heart ache. "When was the last time you ate or slept?" She asked. "Or showered?" She said, wrinkling her nose slightly.
"I-" William mumbled, "I don't know. I-"
Her lips pressed together in determination and she tugged him up gently. "C'mon. If she won't be out for a while yet, you can leave word with the nurse and at least go home and get cleaned up and change." She pulled again insistently and he finally complied, getting to his feet like an old man.
She led him over to where Willow and Xander stood awkwardly by the wall. "Your car's here?" She asked William and at his nod, said, "I'm taking him home. I'll talk to you tomorrow. Thank you for your help." She said earnestly to them both.
There was a slight disagreement at the car, with Buffy insisting on driving, saying that he was in no condition to do so. He reluctantly handed over the keys and sagged into the passenger seat.
She took a deep breath and thanked God it was an automatic transmission. 'I can do this,' she said to herself, 'I took the lessons. No problem.' She inserted the key in the ignition and put the car in reverse.
William was glad he didn't care too much about his own wellbeing at the moment. Buffy drove like a maniac. He listlessly directed her to his house, as she hadn't been paying attention to the roads earlier. He was too tired to wonder at Buffy's presence and actions, instead he rested his head against the cool glass of the window and let her drive him home.
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