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Part 3
After spending a little more time helping Giles with his research, Willow and Xander decided to go visit Buffy at the hospital. They spent the drive there and the ride up to the fourth floor in silence. Neither of them were sure what to expect when they saw their friend. On top of that, the last thing Xander and Willow expected as they stepped from the elevator was to hear a shouting match going on at the nurse's station. They would have ignored it altogether, but that they heard Buffy's name come up at least once.
Xander and Willow turned at the sound. The woman who was yelling had her back to them, but they recognized her anyway. For the only person in Sunnydale with blue hair was Venus, a singer who had appeared in the Bronze two nights ago.
After a long moment, Willow stepped forward, touching Venus on the shoulder to silence her. "Is there a problem here?" she asked the nurse on duty.
Venus answered instead. "Yeah, there's a problem!" she snapped. "This lady refuses to give me an update on Miss Summers' condition... I heard about her attack on the news, and I just want to know if she's okay."
With a sigh, Willow calmly led Venus away, telling the agitated nurse she'd handle this. Once they were alone with Xander, Willow said, "My husband and I are friends of Buffy's. And we can tell you right off that she's in a coma, and nobody knows when she'll wake up."
Xander stepped forward, a trace of suspicion in his eyes. "In the meantime, who are you and why are you so curious?" he asked brusquely.
Venus rubbed at her eyes, unfazed by his rudeness. "Buffy saved my life last night," she answered. "This thing... I don't know what it was... ambushed me, and she got there just in time. She and... Angel, I think his name was."
Willow's lips parted slightly, somewhat pleased to hear that Buffy had gotten in at least one vampire before she had gone down. "Well, we were just about to go in to see her," Willow said softly. "Would you like to join us?"
Xander cleared his throat loudly, taking his wife by one arm. "Can I talk to you privately?" he said pointedly, leading Willow to a spot a few feet away without an answer. "What do you think you're doing?" he whispered. "For all we know, she could be one of the bad guys!"
Willow gave a skeptical smile. "Right, Xander," she said. "Venus is a vampire who just happens to have an immunity to sunlight. In case you haven't noticed, she's standing in front of a window."
Xander threw a quick glance at the blue-haired singer. "Oh, I don't know. I hear they're doing wonders with sunblock these days," he said in an attempt to be witty.
Willow's smile faded slightly. "Xander!" she complained. "Even if she was a bad guy as you put it, why wouldn't she have waited until tonight when things were quiet? If she's here to take Buffy to wherever Angel's being kept, now wouldn't be a good time to do so."
Xander contemplated this a moment. "There's a certain logic to that, I guess," he said hesitantly. "All right, you've convince me. Now do you want to tell Miss Weirdo-Hair or should I?"
At this, Willow did laugh, burying her face in his shoulder to hide her bout of giggles. "Xander, you kill me!" she said at last, leading him back to where they had left Venus...
One advantage of having Giles live on the basement level of his apartment building was that it covered the noise Stefanie was making during her training session. She had been surprised to discover that her Watcher had a punching bag set up in one corner, and she had chose to use it to her advantage.
At least, until she heard Ivory crying in the background. Stefanie took a step back with a sigh, running her hands through the sweaty locks of her brown hair. Walking over to the infant's crib, Stefanie did a quick probing of Ivory's thoughts to see what she wanted.
Moments later, Stefanie was in the kitchen preparing a bottle of soy formula. Once that was finished, she retrieved Ivory and carried her over to the recliner where she began to feed her.
As she gazed down at Ivory's content little face, Stefanie felt a few tears rising to her eyes. "How many times have I wished for this?" she whispered. "To have a baby of my own... Buffy doesn't know how lucky she is." Stefanie paused, setting the bottle aside and holding Ivory a little closer. "You have a wonderful mom, Ivory."
"That's for sure," Jenny said from her spot a few feet away, supporting two bags of groceries and a knapsack in her arms. "How are you, Steffi? Still holding up okay?"
Stefanie nodded absently. "Well, actually, I feel weird being here. I mean, I can't believe that overnight, the home I've known, the people I was close to, could just vanish."
"It's going to take some time to adjust. I know," Jenny replied softly. "But, hopefully, not too long... Once Cordelia is eliminated, Buffy's house will be safe again. And then, you can go back there."
Stefanie hesitated a moment, then went to put Ivory back in her crib and join Jenny in the kitchen. "So, did you get everything?" the slayer asked.
Jenny moved to open the knapsack. "Everything I could find. I never realized Buffy had so many hiding spots for her weapons." With that, Jenny dumped an assortment of crosses, stakes, garlic, and even a crossbow onto the counter.
Stefanie turned her head slightly to the right, her face scrunched up and one hand covering her nose. "Do you mind?" she asked.
Jenny's face reddened, and she quickly gathered up the cloves of garlic, putting them in the trash to dull the smell. "Sorry about that," she said sheepishly.
Stefanie stood up straight. "It's no problem," she said. "Just that being a vampire as well as a slayer has its disadvantages." At that, Stefanie snuck a glance at her left hand, where the slight imprint of a cross was still burned into her palm.
Jenny started to put away the groceries. "So, any more ill effects I should know about?" she asked.
"Not a one," Stefanie replied. "Maybe that's a sign I'm getting better."
Jenny glanced up briefly, not bothering to mask her worried expression. "For your sake, I hope so," she said softly...