Chapter 19 – When Tragedy Strikes
Over two weeks later, Buffy wandered into her house, tossing her keys on the end table that sat next to the door and listlessly dropping her book bag on the floor beneath it. It was her first day back at classes, and already she felt drained of all her energy. Spike and the rest of the band had left for New York two days earlier, and Buffy hadn’t stopped missing him since they said good-bye.
She had talked to him when they landed, and again the night before, but she knew he would be busy with meetings over the next few days and the phone calls would get more sporadic until it was time for them to come home.
Slowly drifting into the living room, she walked over to the couch, letting her legs give out on her when she reached it. Buffy was surprised she didn’t go to sleep the second her head hit one of the throw pillows, using the opportunity to grab the blanket from the back of the couch and cuddle up beneath it.
She knew it was her night to start dinner, but it was likely to be a disaster if she didn’t get in a little bit of sleep. Closing her eyes and letting her body relax, she groaned when she heard the doorbell ring, stirring her from her near slumber. Slowly standing up, Buffy trudged back to the door, using all of the energy she had to twist the knob, pulling it open to reveal a tall man on the other side. A frown immediately settled on her features when she noticed the uniform and somber-looking expression of the police officer standing on the other side.
“Can I help you?” she asked with trepidation in her voice.
“Are you Buffy Summers?”
“That’s me.”
“I’m Officer White. I’m…uh…I’m afraid I have some bad news.”
Feeling the color immediately drain from her cheeks, her hand reflexively gripped the doorknob in a seizing hold.
“What is it?” she whispered.
“I’m afraid there’s been an accident.”
Her heart jumped into her throat at the sound of the simple statement, taking a deep breath as she waited for him to continue.
“You’re mother was presumably on her way home when the side of her car was hit by a man that ran a stop sign.”
“S-she’s fine, though…right?” Buffy asked, her voice getting a little louder as she tried to stop the hysterical panic from rising up inside of her. “I mean, she’ll be okay. She’s just at the hospital, right? I-I need to go get her? She just needs a ride home?”
“Miss Summers-”
“It’s Buffy,” she snapped, cutting him off. “Ms. Summers is my mom, and she’s not here right now.”
“Buffy, I’m sorry, but-”
“No…no…I just saw her…a few hours ago, and she was okay…she’s not…oh God!” Buffy cried, falling to the floor in sobs as the officer tried to console her.
“I’m sorry, Miss. I understand how hard this must be, but your mother…she passed away before she could receive any medical attention.”
“No…not my mom, she was the strong one. She knew what had to be done.” Buffy suddenly gasped in shock as another thought entered her mind. “My sister! M-my mom, sh-she was picking up Dawn, a-and-”
“Your sister is fine. The car impacted on the driver’s side, and the only injuries your sister sustained were a few minor bumps and bruises. She’s asking for you.”
“Dawnie,” she whispered. “I need to get there, I have to see her.”
“I’ll drive you.”
Forcing herself to function enough to locate her keys and lock the front door, Buffy allowed Officer White to help her outside and into his patrol car. Sitting solemnly in the passenger seat, she tried to make her brain comprehend everything that was happening. Before she knew it, she was being led into the emergency room of Sunnydale Memorial with no recollection of actually going the distance to get there. Feeling as if she was on autopilot, Buffy followed the officer through the corridors of the Emergency room, going numb when she was lead behind a curtain to see her sister. Aside from a bump on the head and a shallow cut on her cheek, Dawn didn’t even look hurt, which further clouded Buffy’s mind that her mother was alright and waiting in another vicinity of the hospital.
“Dawnie,” she said softly, causing her sister’s head to snap up before the younger girl immediately launched herself into Buffy’s arms.
“It’s all my fault, Buffy,” she cried into her shoulder.
“Dawnie, don’t say that. You couldn’t have known.”
“But she was picking me up. If I had been a little faster, or even a minute slower in leaving…it’s all my fault.”
“Dawn, listen to me,” Buffy said in a firm and gentle voice, trying to stay strong for her little sister. “I don’t want you to blame yourself. There was no way anyone could have realized what would happen.”
Slowly nodding with tears still in her eyes, Dawn clutched at her sister as if she was a lifeline.
“Miss Summers?”
Turning to face the nurse speaking quietly to her, Buffy nodded, waiting for her to continue.
“We need to further observe your sister to make sure there are no internal injuries. She’ll be free to go home in an hour or so.”
“O-okay,” she whispered, nodding as she turned back to face Dawn. “Honey, I need to go make some phone calls. Will you be okay?” she asked, soothingly running a hand through her long brown hair. She waited for Dawn’s nod before turning and making her way back through the hospital corridors and out of the hospital, inhaling the crisp January air as she tried to control her emotions. Pulling her cell phone out of her pocket, Buffy dialed the first number that came to her mind, having to dial it twice when her shaky hand wouldn’t cooperate.
After a few rings, she heard the comforting voice. “Hello?”
“Spike,” she whispered softly.
“Buffy?” he asked in confusion, straining to hear her voice over the men who were talking around him.
Listening to him fumbling around in the background, Buffy bit her lip as she waited until she heard a door close, muffling the noises before he spoke, “I’m in the middle of a meeting, pet, what is it?”
“I need you,” she replied, never raising her voice above the numb tone that she had been speaking in since her breakdown in front of the policeman.
“I need you, too, baby, but this is a really bad time. I’ve got about five suits in the other room waiting on me.”
“Spike, I want you to come home.”
“Buffy, we’ve been over this. I’ll be back at the end of the week,” he said in a gentle voice. “Now, I love you, and I’ll call you later.”
Hearing the click on the other end of the line, she felt her heart begin to race. “Spike…Spike!”
When he didn’t answer, she ended the call and tried again, only to be met with his voicemail. With tears burning her eyes, she quickly dialed another number.
“Giles…”
* * * * *
Sitting in the middle of the Summer’s living room later that night, Giles was exhausted after making funeral arrangements and filling in other necessary odds and ends so his girls wouldn’t have to be burdened by it. He had finally managed to get Dawn to sleep, but Buffy was a different story. She had remained somber and quiet, silently sitting next to him as he made all of the calls that needed to be handled, never shedding a tear in front of him, even when she said good night and practically clung to him before she went up to her room.
Now, he could still hear the quiet sobs that were coming from her room. The doctor had given both girls a prescription for Valium to sedate them. Giles had given one to Buffy before she had gone to bed, but it still hadn’t taken affect. His heart broke as he heard her hoarse voice carry through the house, the same soft plea on her lips.
“I need him…I need him.”
Giles was ready to gut his son when he was met with the answering service at the hotel, which refused to disturb any of their famous guests, no matter what the emergency was. He didn’t have the cell numbers for the other boys, and Spike’s was still turned off. Hearing his surrogate daughter in so much pain, Giles had to restrain himself from throwing the phone against the wall.
* * * * *
Awaking with a pounding headache the next morning, Spike almost couldn’t hear the sound of someone banging on the door as it blended with the thudding in his brain. Realizing what was happening a moment later, he rolled out of bed with a groan, making his way toward the door. After spending all day yesterday being shuffled in and out of meetings and finally breaking for dinner, only to return after an hour, he was starting to feel like he was a
lawyer instead of a singer. He hated having to sit through all the legal hassle of exactly how to put out the next album.
“Spike, open up!”
“Don’t get your knickers twisted, Peaches. I’m coming,” he said, unlocking the door as he ran a hand through his sleep-tousled hair with a yawn. “What the bloody hell do you want this early in the morning?”
“Call your dad.”
“What?” he asked, furrowing his brow as he looked at his friend.
“You heard me. Your dad just called my cell and said he had to call my parents and get the number. He said if he doesn’t hear from you in exactly ten minutes, he’s going to beat the living hell out of you.”
Spike furrowed his brow at the unseemly approach Giles took. That sounded more like something he would have said in his Ripper days, not something that Spike familiarized with the Giles persona. Reaching for his cell, he noticed it was turned off and cursed under his breath.
“I was supposed to call Buffy back last night,” he mumbled, running a hand through his hair in irritation that he had forgotten. “I was so wiped out, I came back and crashed. She’s going to kill me.”
Dialing his father’s house, Spike’s frown only deepened when he was connected to the answering machine.
“Where the bloody hell is he? He’s the one who wanted me to call him.”
Quickly dialing Buffy’s house, he became worried when a strange voice answered.
“I need to speak with Buffy Summers,” he said, glancing over at Angel, who was watching him in confusion.
“Buffy’s unavailable at the moment.”
“Who is this?”
“Who’s this? You’re the one who called.”
“Is Rupert Giles there?” he asked, his patience running thin.
“One moment.”
Frowning when he heard his father was over at the house, he noticed Angel giving him the same questioning look, shaking his head to let him know he’d talk to him in a moment.
“Hello?”
Breathing a sigh of relief at the sound of his father’s voice, Spike let his eyes close as his exhaustion took over again. “Hello, Da.”
“Where the bloody hell have you been?!”
Spike pulled the phone away from his ear and stared at it in bewilderment, shocked by his father’s shouting. Slowly putting the phone back to his ear, he shook his head as he spoke, “I’m in New York, Dad. Told you I was gonna be gone a week, remember?”
“That’s not what I mean. You have been out of contact with the outside world for nearly twenty-four hours!”
“Yeah, sorry ‘bout that. Forgot to turn my phone back on.”
“Spike, we need you to come home.”
“Listen, Da, I already had this conversation with Buffy, so let me tell you the same thing. I-”
“No, let me tell you something, son,” Giles spat out. “Maybe if you paid more attention to the woman you loved and spent less time on that blasted career of yours, you would have seen that Buffy did not just want you to come home…she needed you here. Like she’s never needed you to be here before.”
“Dad, what are you talking about? Let me talk to Buffy.”
“Buffy is unavailable at the moment, Will,” Giles said, his voice softening as he prepared to tell his son the news.
Spike’s temper erupted at being denied access to talk to her for the second time. “You know, Giles, that’s the second time I’ve heard that in less than three minutes, and I’m really soddin’ tired of it. Now put my girlfriend on the phone.”
“Spike,” Giles continued in a soothing manner. “Buffy can’t come to the phone because she’s finally getting some much needed rest.”
”Okay, I’m getting really sick of beatin’ around the bush, so why don’t you tell me what the hell is going on?”
“Son, there was an accident yesterday.”
Spike felt his heart stop in dread. “She’s okay, right…Buffy’s okay?”
“Physically, she’s fine, but William…Joyce was killed in a car wreck yesterday afternoon.”
Swallowing hard, he felt the world shifting around him. Staggering over to drop into a nearby chair, Spike let his head fall into one hand as the other tightened around the phone. “No…she can’t be…”
“Buffy needs you right now, son.”
“I’m on the next flight home,” he whispered, disconnecting the call. Sitting there for another few seconds as he tried to wrap his mind around what he had just been told. Taking a deep breath, he slowly turned to look at Angel.
“What happened, Spike?”
Instead of answering, Spike leapt from the chair, grabbed the nearest breakable object, and hurled it towards the far wall with a yell. Turning to look for something else, he felt Angel’s restraining grip on his arm.
“Spike, what the hell is going on?”
Sinking to the floor, he felt the tears stinging his eyes as his head dropped into his hands. “I’m such a soddin’ ponce. She needed me, and I…oh God,” he said as the awareness suddenly hit him. “That’s why she called…yesterday, she needed me, and I…”
Angel watched as tears began streaming down his friend’s cheeks.
“Spike,” he said softly, touching his shoulder.
Suddenly jumping up from his sitting position, Spike began running around the room, throwing clothes into his suitcase and quickly getting dressed at the same time. Finally turning to face Angel, he slowly took in a few deep breaths to try and calm himself. “Joyce was killed in a car accident.”
Staring at Spike in disbelief, Angel’s mouth dropped open as he shook his head in disbelief. “My God…do you want me to go back with you?”
“No,” Spike said, shaking his head as he picked up his suitcase and began walking toward the door. “No…you stay here and finish up. I have to go see about my girl.”
Thanks so much to: olivia-luv, Cordykitten, Caitie, BuffyandSpikeForever, willowmouse, B, Franchesca, & txjmfan for reviewing!
[Reviews - 243]
-
Table of Contents [Report This]
Chapter or Story |
Chapter or Story | 
Chapter or Story
Has been viewed 4743 times
- Text Size +
-
Table of Contents [Report This]
Chapter or Story |
Chapter or Story | Chapter or Story - Text Size +