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Author's Chapter Notes:
Don't worry! TRUST THE AUTHOR.
Chapter 14

There was a faint knock at the hospital room door, rousing Spike from his silent vigil at Buffy's side."Spikey?" Harmony's voice squeaked through the crack. Dawn cast her future brother in law a hard stare and Spike gave her an apologetic look before going out into the hall.

"Harmony?" he questioned. She was still in her dress from the restaurant. "What are you doing here?"

"You looked pretty upset back there...uh...is she okay?"

"No, no, pet she's not. She's been poisoned by demons. The doctors won't be able to do anything for her, so the Scoobies are on it. But there isn't much time left...so we're waiting and watching."

"Oh, sorry to you know, hear that, 'cause I know you love her and stuff...but Buffy's gonna be fine, right?"

"'Course she is, Slayer'll be in fighting form in no time."

"Spike!" Giles hollered from the other end of the hall, rushing past orderlies, patients and doctors towards the vampires.

"Watcher?!" Spike bolted towards the other man, hoping for good news.

"Willow's working on an antidote presently, the samples were fresh enough to give her everything she needs."

"Bloody hell, thank god, I don't know how much more any of us can take..." A nurse came running past them, knocking hard into Spike's shoulder,"Oi! Watch it!" It was but a second later that Spike realized the background sounds of machinery signaling a patient's distress was coming from Buffy's room, and one second after that Dawn screamed her sister's name with such fear that he felt the air around him vibrate from it.

Giles had never seen a more rapid and surging swell of movement, like a tidal wave crashing as the the vampire moved in tandem with the emergency team to Buffy's room. As Spike neared the door, Dawn was unceremoniously pushed out and into the vampire's arms, the nurse ordering them to keep out of the way. Spike held on to the girl for dear life as she choked on her sobs and tried to explain what had suddenly happened.

Buffy's heart had just...stopped.

The high pitched and incessant whine of the heart monitor's flatline rang in Spike ears, it travelled down his spine and out to every single last nerve in his body. His stomach felt twisted and tight and his heart ached so painfully he felt a compulsion to reach into his chest and yank it out. He passed Dawn over to Giles and braved looking in through the slit of glass on the door at the team of medics working to save his Slayer. He nearly wretched when he saw them shock her heart with the defibrillator, her entire body tensing and raising up in such a severe arc that he thought she'd snap in two. The voices of the nurses and doctors sounded out to his vampire's senses as one chaotic miasma of panic.

Don't give up, Buffy. I want you to wear white at our wedding.

In the end, the voices faded away, but the damnable sound of the flatline remained. The nurses all filed past him, back to their regular duties now that the crisis was over. One doctor gave Spike a resigned nod as he past, then the attending physician emerged. The man inhaled a deep breath and held his hands out in abeyance, then began to speak. Spike moved past him without second glance and into the room. He approached the bed slowly, each foot fall resonating and heralding the approach of the Grim Reaper following behind, as if would snatch her away before he said goodbye.

He trembled violently, hyperventilating and blind from tears. He tried to speak, to rouse her, to bring her back, but he couldn't calm enough to take the air in. She still had the tube down her throat, and the IV still fed antibiotics into her bloodstream, there was a bruise already where the needle penetrated her. There was no blood flow to carry the medicine. His mind flashed back to when he'd come back to consciousness after his fall from Glory's tower. He'd crawled over to where the other Scoobies were standing, and then he'd seen her. He'd wept and screamed. Now he could barely move.

He buckled when he finally reached the bed, his face falling next to hers on the pillow and his hands cradling her face around the ventilator tubing. He was quaking and sobbing silently, he didn't want to scare Dawn. Her fever was gone already and she was growing cold,. The body was getting cold. Just a body, not the real live girl that had single handily brought him out of the darkness and made him a man again. Where was that girl now? No heartbeat to lull him to sleep, no warmth to protect and satiate him, no laughter to make his soul sing. Just a corpse where his entire reason for existing used to be.

Chapter 15

They came for her barely 30 minutes later, he heard them all the way down the hall about how they needed the room. Thirty minutes ago the love that had changed his entire being had slipped away and now they wanted to take her from him.

Giles knew the moment he saw the orderlies from the morgue approach the room that there was going to be a confrontation. Dawn was clutching possessively to his coat, still in shock, still weeping, more frightened than he'd ever known her to be, but Dawn wasn't a vampire. There was no telling how Spike was going to react if they came to take Buffy from him. However, unable to leave the younger Summers on her own, he guided her with him as he followed the the hospital workers.

Spike was hunched over Buffy, the soft murmuring of his voice just barely audible as it was muffled against her pillow. One of the ones who'd come to take the body took the initiative to speak and in a flash he was confronted by a vampire in full game face.

"Get away from her!" Spike snarled. They stepped back, utterly terrified, but of all people it was Dawn who acted next. She eased away from Giles and came over to her sister and the vampire. Her fingers brushed lightly over Buffy's cold hand as she silently wrapped her arms around Spike's waist and walked him out of the hospital room. Outside in the hall the vampire and the girl he now loved best in the world huddled together. Giles came to be with them too, Spike allowing the Watcher to hold an arm around his shoulder. The three of them held on to each other and shook from their weeping. It was perhaps a little bit worse for the vampire, as he heard every movement and ever word spoke on the other side of the door.

Spike's panicked, hysterical breathing and crying rose in a steady crescendo and he began to struggle against Dawn and Giles holding him. He morphed into the vampire visage again, the tears streaming down his distorted face seemed as perverse as the vampire having a soul. The door opened and an orderly pulled a gurney behind him, followed by his co-worker. She was a slight figure under the white sheet, her face covered, just a body.

The howl that tore itself from Spike's body echoed through the emergency room, stilling every single last person. Staff and patients all around them froze, heads turning in his direction."Spike, please don't..." Dawn begged, but it was already too late. He reeled back, his demon in full power, full control, raging with every fiber over the primal knowledge his mate was lost. His fists went straight through the plaster, demolishing one wall. Gasps of shock and fright were heard and people were moving again, rushing away.

"Spike stop! Please!" Dawn cried.

He smashed his clenched hand through another, but there was a hard din as he hit a cement column that was encasing strips of rebar. He drew back his demolished, bloody hand and shoved it through the pane of glass on Buffy's room's door.

By now hospital security had been alerted, two men were advancing, but Giles interceded and stepped between them,"No! You mustn't!" the Watcher implored. Spike hadn't had enough, there wasn't a shred of sanity inside him now to stop him from his rampage. In all of this someone else had been forgotten, the other vampire.

Harmony had been watching from afar as the entire drama unfolded and turned to chaos. She'd never, ever, in all the time she'd know him see him react in so out of control a manner. So volatile, so traumatized, so vulnerable. She didn't much like to slip into vamp face in front of regular people, perhaps it was because of the soul, but when she let her own demon lose she felt more self-conscious than anything. When she was with her girls it was okay and for Spike, she didn't hesitate. She pushed past every one and grabbed him, summoning her strength and tossing him to the ground. It was enough to rouse him from his delirium.

He got back up quickly enough, but she was there instantly, holding his wrists to still the violence. He looked at her, rather confused, lost. She morphed back to the angelic, often childlike human face, her pretty blue eyes glistening with tears in sympathy for his pain."Let's get out of here, okay?" she asked. He simply nodded his head and let go. He let go of Buffy.

Be at peace, my love.





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