Out of the Frying Pan, Into the Fire

Chp.4

A Meeting of Minds

Information? It's somewhere, maybe

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Dr. Robin Wood steps into the poshly, and expensively furnished inner office. He had been impressed with the outer office furnishigs, but this was more extravigant than he would have imagined an office to be. It looked more like someones reading parlor than a psychiatric wards doctors office.

The outer office had been furnished with an over abundance of antique and modern chairs, and sofas. The man had noticed a couple of televisions mounted on the walls, and the bubbly red headed receptionist had been sitting behind a state of the art set up, her computer seemed to be top of the line, and she had a chair with the computerized back rest. But this room. He looks on in astonishment, it almost had the feel of an Old English parlor room.

Dr. Wood's first impression is that the doctor was quite knowledgeable if all the books littering the obviously antique oak wood shelves, and desk was any indication. Books seemed to abound in this place. The computer on the desk looked completely out of place, and probably hadn't been used in quite some time, considering that it was buried under a heap of books, and manila file folders.

His gaze pans around the room, two Queen Anne styled chairs sit in front of the desk, and end tables in the same style sit beside them. Coming to the conclusion that the doctor is very well off, to be able to afford the obviously antique furniture. Unlike the outer office, there aren't any couches, only the two chairs, and the high back, leather covered chair behind the desk.

Dr. Giles seems to realize that he isn't alone any longer, and turns from the bay window that his desk is situated in front of. He lays a stack of papers on the desk as he looks over at the black man standing in front of him.

Giles uses a calculating gaze. "You must be young Miss Summers' physician." His brow raises questioningly. "I'm Williams doctor, Rupert Giles." He introduces his self, "But everyone even the patients seem to deem to call me, Giles." He smirks, and offers the man his hand.

Thinking it peculiar, but not saying anything about it. Robin extends his hand to his colleague, he confirms that yes he is "Dr. Robin Wood," as he shakes the other mans hand.

Giles assesses the younger man with a glance. "I'm terribly sorry. Excuse my atrocious manners. Won't you please have a seat," Giles blushes slightly at his lapse of courtesy, and waves a hand at the two chairs that sits in front of his desk.

Robin inches back a little until his legs find the edge of one of the chairs, and silently takes a seat.

Taking his glasses off, as he watches the other man sit down, Giles rubs them habitually with the tie around his neck, and then sighs. "I understand that you have some questions about Spike."

Robin gives the man a dubious look at the silly name.

He says, smiling at the expression on Robins face as he utters the patients 'name'. "Yes, I know. He insists that William is a poncy name and will not be called by it. So everyone around the hospital with the exception of his nurse calls him Spike. It's ridiculous, really." He hastily explains.

Shaking his head, and placing a hand on his chin, "No, it's not the name that threw me, it's the fact that my patient also called him that awful moniker last night when she noticed him."

"Excuse me?"

"Buffy Summers, my patient. She came out of a year long, catatonic state last night. She was screaming that name. Then William." He absolutely refused to call the young man Spike. " He walked into the room and knew exactly who she was. She rushed into his arms, it was a whole dramatic thing." Robin explains. Giving just a brief rundown of what had happened the night before.

"Wait a moment did you say that William is awake again? These idiots, they never tell me a single thing. They know they're supposed to tell me when he wakes. He's also been in a catatonic state for a year." The English man says agitated at the ignorance of the sods working for him. The only one of them worth having around is his receptionist, and she probably hadn't gotten the report on Spike yet either.

"Wait you said he was also in a catatonic state for the last year?" Robin interrupts the other doctors' rant, on the idiocy of the staff.

"Yes, yes. He was flashing in and out for about six month's, then he awoke for quite awhile last summer, it's a bloody guessing game with the boy. He surprises us every time he awakens. What's really puzzling is that the first few times he was mumbling about killing something called a Slayer, then the last couple of times it was about a girl named Buffy. Which if I'm correct would be the patient we are speaking of."

Opening a file folder, he deftly removed from the lab coat pocket that he has on, Robin hands the report to the older doctor.

Taking the proffered file, Giles looks it over. Looking up at Robin in askance. "Good, god man! Is this what I think. This Slayer and Buffy are the same thing, or uh person. I should say."

Placing his elbows on his knees, and shaking his head, "It sure would seem that way, Rupert." Robin's matter of fact tone grabs his attention immediately, and Giles looks across the desk at his colleague.

Robin rolls his eyes, "It all pieces together, Rupert. Look at it. First, he wants her dead. Then a few years later he wakes up and wants to protect her from everything. What do you think could have happen in interim? Something made him want to be there for her. The only piece I haven't fit in is the why."

"Yes, I've already pieced all of this together, Dr Wood." Glaring imploringly, Giles answers the man through his gritted teeth, putting what he'd figured out into that glare.

Taking in the look and the posture, Robin's eyes grow wide, as the final piece fits. "So, what you're say is that Mr. Osborne is in love with Miss Summers." The shock is evident as he says the last few words.

"Yes, you pillock. That's exactly what I'm saying. The poor sod, every time he awoke after the first couple of times, he would swear, and curse this place. The man would rant, saying that he needed to get back, because Buffy/the Slayer needed him. He had to protect her and her family." The English doctor is getting angrier and angrier with the man sitting in front of him. He has gotten up from his seat and leaned completely across the desk trying to get as close to the black man as he can. "He didn't care that she cared nothing for him. He didn't want anything to do with a single person in this facility. He'd come and talk to me and want to get back to 'his' Buffy. That's the only thing that has ever been on his mind."

Robin sits astonished, puzzled yet again over the two people that he'd seen last night. "You say that she cared nothing for him. That's certainly not what I saw last night. The girl was just as desperate for him, from the reaction she gave as she laid her eyes on him. She wanted nothing to do with anyone else in the room. Those two weren't getting to far from each other. For all I know they're probably still standing there in the doorway of her room. I know from the way William reacted to the nurse that had come to collect him from the room, that he wasn't going to leave her side. She just clung to him like her whole life depended on him being there. This wasn't a reaction that a person would give if they detested the sight of someone else. It seemed as if she were linked to him, somehow." He explains his impression of the couple.

Easing back down into the chair, Giles takes his glasses off, pinches the top of his nose, opens the hand and slides it slowly down his face. " I think it would be wise for us to speak to each of the patients. If I think what is going on, really is. We may be dealing with a type of shared delusions. Although it's not been heard of in recent history, it has been known to occur." Giles' eys glaze over as his mind runs over the ramifications of this theory.

"My god man, could you imagine what this would mean to our profession?" He can't help but state his thoughts.

Dr. Wood didn't know that was going to be brought up, but he had toyed with the notion since last night. He nods his head and gets up from the chair.

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(HA! The mystery has just begun. There's much more in store for all of them.)