William went to go up to the receptionist but instead found the nurse on duty last night leaving.
He stopped her and inquired if Angel was in the room with Buffy and she shook her head saying he called but said he wouldn’t be able to come by until at least tomorrow and that whoever was on duty was supposed to call if there were any changes.
She then sniffled saying, “Poor Angel. He’s so heartbroken but his club keeps him so busy that he can’t even see Buffy. It must be killing him.”
William thanked her for her time and rolled his eyes when she was out of sight. ‘Bunch of stupid bints and wankers in this town who don’t know trouble when they seen it. Bloody idiots!’ William thought to himself.
William didn’t even stop by the desk and instead snuck up to Buffy’s room which was quiet except for the monitors and sat next to her bed to hold her hand, “Buffy luv, you need to wake up. I think you are in danger as long as you are with Angel. Bad things seem to happen to those who are with him. Girls just disappear. Wake up luv, wake up!”
To William’s surprise, Buffy opened her eyes and whispered, “Will? Is that you?”
William smiled happily as his bag dropped to the floor as he took both of her hands into his and said, “Yeah Buffy tis me. How do you feel? Are you ok?”
Buffy smiled and said, “You found me again…”
Then she frowned remembering the reason she had left him and asked, “Why are you here?”
William shook his head thinking he had heard this conversation before last time he met up with her. ‘Was this girl always going to run away?’ William thought to himself but instead to Buffy he answered, “I’ll always find you my love. Always.”
Buffy smiled at this statement and said, “I’m tired and my head is killing me. Will you be here when I wake up?”
William gave her a kiss on the forehead and promised he would unless someone dragged him away.
Buffy drifited off to sleep as William went into the bathroom to make a call back home to ensure the opening to his new restaurant was going as expected.
Buffy awoke a few hours later and found William resting next to her.
He had curled up on the bed next to her and was holding her close to him.
Her whole body felt like it was on fire and hurt all over.
A nurse walked in and saw she was awake and said, “Buffy dear, you are awake.”
Buffy groaned a little careful not to disturb the sleeping William and said, “I feel like I got run over.”
The nurse giggled and said, “Well that’s because you were.”
Buffy looked in shock and she sat up so quickly she moaned loudly waking William from his sleep.
He immediately opened his eyes and saw Buffy trying to lay with her eyes closed and her face in pain as he without thinking helped her to lay back onto the bed and fluffed her pillow and then crawled off the bed and back onto the seat.
The nurse smiled seeing Buffy so well taken care of and asked Buffy, “Whose your friend?”
Buffy looked at William not sure how to answer but William answered for her, “An old friend, William is the name Knew her but lost track of her. So thankful to have found her.”
The nurse felt a bit uneasy seeing the man’s obvious affection towards Buffy and seeing Buffy’s obvious return of the affection.
In all the times she had seen Buffy, she had never seen any pictures that showered her smiling so brightly.
The nurse left out of the room leaving the two of them alone to ‘catch up’ still not knowing what to make of the change.
Buffy watched as William carefully picked up his bag and asked the nurse if it was okay for Buffy to share the sandwich he had brought with her.
The nurse nodded leaving the room again and brought Buffy a diet coke.
The nurse was easy going and since Buffy’s injuries were mostly bruising with head trauma and since she was awake, her food diet didn’t really matter.
Besides the diner is what provided the food for the hospital anyway.
So William opened her diet coke and opened his cola setting them both on the tray the nurse had brought for them.
William took his sandwich that had already been cut into two 6-inch pieces and placed one in front of Buffy knowing they both liked the same things on their sandwiches. He took out the bag of
chips thankful he had bought a bigger bag and divided it carefully between them placing it as well on the plates.
He hid the papers and kept his big piece of chocolate cake in the bag for later.
In comfortable silence, Buffy and William ate their lunch together.
Buffy couldn’t help but smile even though she was in pain at the fact William had once again found her. She still wondered how but decided to finish eating first.
William finished before her and sat back in his chair rubbing his mouth absently with a napkin before he broke the silence with, “Saw an article about you in the newspaper from when you were hit by a car. Well actually Xander saw it first, he called me, I rushed here to see you. Did some research while you were sleeping this morning. Found some interesting information. Have you ever looked at the articles done about you in the town about you and Angel?”
Buffy shook her head taking another bite of food and William asked, “Do you know much about Angel?”
Buffy again shook her head, “I work at his club and stay in the guest room at his house. Other than that, I don’t know a whole lot about him."
William nodded and waited for her to eat her last few bites before continuing not wanting to risk her not eating because of his information that he found.
William lifted the papers from the bag and handed her the article that announced her accident.
She was amazed at the fact Angel was called Guardian Angel and his portrayal of her life. She asked, “Are there more?”
William nodded and looked through his papers and handed her the one from the morning and then the ones that had been created over the last two years of her stay.
She was on the front page a lot and always discussed as the little lost girl that Angel saved. Sometimes it was even downgrading the way he painted her as pitiful, pathetic and unable to care for herself.
This was making Buffy more and more upset but determined to learn all that William had learned, she asked, “What else do you have there?”
William hesitated knowing she was in a coma the last two days but decided he had never lied to her before so wouldn’t start now.
She had a right to know so he didn’t say a word and handed her the first article about Rowena. Then an article about Amanda. Buffy looked confused and looked at William, “Are they all like this?”
William nodded and she said, “How many?”
He whispered gently, “13 not counting you.” Buffy took the papers from William’s hands looking at all the articles and noticed in them were missing articles.
William had arranged them so that every girl’s articles were paper clipped together with the dates in order and at the end was the date she went missing along with the police reports.
She went through all 13 in silence before looking at William asking with tears in her eyes, “What does this mean?”
William hesitated and said, “I’m not sure Buffy. But there’s more.”
He then handed her the article about his childhood and the fire as well as the opening of his club. He also handed her the last information he had found which was about Angel being questioned about the death of two club owners in L.A. but no evidence had been found to convict him.
Buffy gasped in horror at the last police report and shook her head saying, “No, it can’t be. He’s loved by the town.”
William nodded unsure of what to say but Buffy continued, “His club makes him rich. It’s packed every night. He wasn’t so bad towards me. Gave me a place to live, income, clothing, and he seemed to care sometimes. He only asked for blowjobs in return but he wasn’t that bad of a guy.”
William’s eyes turned dark blue as he repeated Buffy’s statements, “Blowjobs in return?”
Buffy tried to crawl deeper into the covers as she nodded as tears spilled over her face, “He wanted more but I could make him satisfied with just a blow job. I’m sure most people wouldn’t give free room and board in exchange for just a blow job.”
William looked in horror at her words and found she really believed that. He was shocked at how Buffy’s mind worked but more importantly he was pissed at Angel for putting Buffy in such a spot.
The wonderful Angel is appeared wasn’t so wonderful after all.
William’s hands turned white from anger and he leaned over and kissed Buffy on the head giving her a gentle hug which made the last of his strength break as he said, “Get some rest luv. I’ll be back soon. Have something to take care of.”
Buffy not understanding where he was going but accepting he had to go whispered softly yawning, “Will you be here when I wake up?”
William nodded saying, “Rest now luv. It will be better soon.”
With that William went out of her room on a mission.