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Dawn listened as the doctor explained the reason for all of the tests. He was saying they were moving Buffy to the intensive care area so they could monitor her and the babies more closely. The tests were to help find out why her sister was still unconscious, and if the situation became drastic enough, they'd be ready to save the babies.

"Are you telling me my daughter might be brain damaged?" Joyce asked.

"I’m saying we don't know the extent of her condition and we need further testing to find out the cause of why she is in a coma-like state," Dr Greene explained, not wanting to commit to the diagnosis of a coma just yet.

"Should I call her father, then?" Joyce asked guiltily, knowing she should have called him as soon as it happened.

Everyone quietly listened to the news that Buffy was still unconscious, but that the babies were doing okay for the moment. Willow and Xander held each other tight while lost in their fear and pain. Rupert's attention was focused on his wife, who was struggling to comprehend her oldest daughter's fate and understand exactly what the doctor was telling them.

"Once we have her settled in the Neurological Intensive Care Unit, one of the nurses will come and get you. Until then, we have a couple of tests we are going to do while she is still in the emergency room," Dr. Greene continued to explain.

"Thank you, Dr. Greene," Joyce said as she turned into her husband's embrace.

"One last question…it concerns the babies father," Dr. Greene started to say before the man holding his patient's mother interrupted him.

"He is of no matter. He is not involved with Buffy or the babies' welfare whatsoever!" Giles replied. "Joyce, her mother, is the responsible party."

"Dr. Rayne will be the neurologist taking care of your daughter. He is in examining her now," Dr. Greene informed them before leaving them, accepting the fact the babies' father would not be involved.

No one noticed that Dawn had left the lobby. Her fear of losing her sister caused her to seek out the one she felt responsible for it. She made her way to the pay phone and dialed the cell phone she'd committed to memory so long ago.

"Bledsoe, here," Spike answered his cell phone.

"You no good fucking bastard."

"Dawn, is that you?" Spike asked, shocked at the foul language coming from her mouth.

He'd just called and left a message on the Giles' answering machine that he needed Buffy to call him. He wondered if Dawn had heard it instead and was calling him to tell him what he could do with it.

"God, I hate you. You killed her. It's your fault this is happening, you son of a bitch," Dawn continued to rant to him over the phone.

Spike's heart felt like it had stopped beating. "Dawn, what are you talking about, killed who, who died?"

"Like you would care. You have a new family now. You're no better then Angel. No, make that worse than Captain Forehead. At least he didn't marry her and fill her head with all kinds of lies. He didn't…"

She never finished her sentence because the phone was taken out of her hand.

"Who is this?" Giles asked carefully, fearing he already knew who was on the other end of the phone line.

"It's me," Spike replied. "What's wrong? Who is dead? Where's Buffy?"

"Spike, you no longer have the right to know anything about this family," Giles tried calmly explaining to the young man instead of just hanging up the phone without saying anything more.

"Tell me, Rupert. What the hell is going on that Dawn is calling me and telling me it's my fault?" Spike tried to reason with the older man. "Please, tell me it's not Buffy. God, please…tell me she's okay! None of this will be worth it if she's not okay."

"Buffy's in a coma-like state and the doctors don't know why," Giles explained and was shocked at the deafening cry of pain on the other end before the phone went dead.

Joyce was now hugging her youngest daughter to her chest when she noticed the worried look on her husband's face. "Honey, what's wrong."

"Spike didn't take the news well," was all he said, giving her a look that said they'd talk more about it later. "I think you should call Hank now."

"Yes, I think you're right," Joyce agreed, as she kissed the top of Dawn's head before handing her over to Rupert to comfort as she made her call.

*******

"Summers," Hank answered the phone. He wondered who in Sunnydale would be calling him, since he recognized the area code.

"Hank," Joyce said, unable to say anything else right away.

"Joyce, honey, what's wrong?" Hank knew that if Joyce was calling him, something had to have happened.

"It's Buffy, Hank. The doctors don't know why, but she won't wake up," Joyce said as she started to cry.

"I'm on my way! I’ll be there as fast as I can," Hank said.

"Hank, our baby girl…" Joyce continued to cry as she leaned her head against the phone.

"Are you alone? Is Rupert or Dawn there?” Hank asked, hoping she wasn’t facing this alone.

"Yes, they're here," she answered.

"Good, put Rupert on the line," Hank instructed her. "I'll be there, baby. I promise."

"I believe you," Joyce replied as she turned to offer the phone to Rupert. "He wants to talk to you."

Giles and Joyce exchanged Dawn and the receiver as he spoke into the phone, "I'm here."

"How is Buffy, really?" Hank asked, knowing Rupert's nature was to be calm in the face of chaos.

"No one really knows yet. They're still running tests," Rupert answered.

"The babies? How are the babies?" he asked, feeling like an elephant was sitting on his chest.

"So far, they are doing just fine," Rupert reassured him.

"I know this will sound crazy, but has anyone contacted Spike?" Hank asked, waiting for the fireworks to go off.

"It would seem that Dawn has made a rather accusatory phone call to the man in question," Giles sighed.

"How did he take it?" Hank asked, worried about the young man.

"He doesn't seem to be taking it well," Giles answered, wondering the sudden interest Hank had in Spike's welfare.

"Giles, listen to me carefully. I met with Spike today and he shed some light on a few things. I'm going to find him and make sure he hasn't done anything crazy. I’ll explain more when I see you, and I think you’ll have a better understanding on things as I do." Hank decided his ex-wife's husband would understand and be more apt to help with getting Spike and Buffy back together. "Why don't I call you and tell you more after I find Spike?"

"I'll keep an open mind," Giles promised, for some reason he believed the man.

"Did Dawn tell him about the twins?" Hank asked the man who now played father to his daughters.

"No, and neither did I. We'll talk more when you get here," Giles answered, wondering how all of this was going to play out.

"I think I'll leave that part out as well. See you soon," Hank said before he hung up the phone.

"Is he coming here?" Dawn asked as she watched Rupert hang up the phone.

"Yes, your father is coming here," Giles informed her as he put his arms around both Joyce and Dawn and hugged them as tight as he could without hurting them.

"Do you think Spike will come?" Dawn asked.

"No," Joyce said, believing he wouldn't.

"Yes," Giles said, knowing he would. "I think we should prepare ourselves and the others for the arrival of both men."

"Why? Spike can go wait at a hotel," Dawn replied. "He doesn't have to stay here."

"I don't think he'll be so willing to wait in the hotel when he finds out Buffy's condition and that she is carrying his children," Rupert decided not to pull any punches.

"He left her, remember?" Dawn pulled away and glared at her stepfather.

"Yes, not knowing he'd left her in the family way. She kept the truth from him, thus lying by omission. I don't think that he'll be angry. I think he'll be afraid and riddled with guilt," Rupert said, thinking more about what Hank had implied.

Joyce silently wondered what Hank had shared with her husband. Realizing it wasn't the time to ask, she decided to let it go for now. Later, when Dawn wasn’t in earshot, she would demand he tell her what Hank had said.

"I think we keep quiet for now, about the fact that Spike might be coming here. The last thing we need is for Xander to be angry and upset for no reason," Joyce suggested.

"I think that would be a wise plan, my dear," Giles agreed as he gave Dawn a meaningful look.

"Fine, I won't say anything, but if he comes here, I'm not going to talk to him," Dawn said as she glared at Giles.

*******





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