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In Harm's Way by dawnofme
 
15. Not Possible?
 
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Much thanks to my betas: Mabel_Marsters, Tanit, & Slaymesoftly.

In Harm's Way

Chapter Fifteen: Not Possible?


Buffy slowly opened her eyes. Her head swam, making her feel nauseous. At first, the figure to her left was just a pastel blur, but by the time the unfamiliar woman turned to face Buffy, she could see clearly that she was in a hospital.

“There you are,” the pretty nurse said pleasantly. “We were beginning to get worried.”

“What? I mean...” Buffy tried to sit up, but her head hurt too much.

“Don't strain yourself.” The nurse pushed a button, raised the head of the bed up and fluffed the pillows for her. “Your mom just stepped out to get something to eat. She'll be so happy to see you awake.”

Buffy glanced around with glazed eyes. The dim, small room was filled with machines. She jumped when the band around her arm began to tighten.

“It's okay. That's just the blood pressure machine.”

“What happened?”

“You don't remember? I guess it was kind of traumatic.” The nurse gently tapped her arm. “I'm Carly, by the way. I'll be your ICU nurse for another couple of hours. I was here when they first brought you in yesterday morning. You look much better today.”

Subconsciously, Buffy brought her IV free hand to her face.

“The bruises are almost all gone now,” Nurse Carly said in wonder. “It's amazing. You don't look like you were just attacked by a gang.”

Buffy's eyes widened as the memory of what happened with Adam came rushing back.

“It's okay. All your friends are okay. You'll be able to visit with them once you are moved to a regular room.” Carly brought over a cup with a straw. “Just take a few small sips.”

Buffy complied, the ice cold water a slight shock to her system. When she could speak, she asked, “Why am I in ICU?”

“The artery in your leg was severed and had to be surgically repaired. You are a very lucky girl to have such quick thinking friends. You lost a lot of blood, but the surgeons were able to repair your artery, and the good thing is that your baby wasn't harmed at all.”

“What?” Buffy gasped, keeping her mouth open in shock.

“You didn't know?” the nurse asked. “When we got the results back from your blood tests, the doctor instructed all of us to not mention it to your family, because they didn't ask about a baby, and it wasn't our place to say anything.”

“A...a baby?” Buffy shook her head, suddenly feeling even more tired. “There is no baby. Not possible.”

The nurse smiled. “There's no way that you and that boyfriend of yours don't...um.” She snickered.

“Boyfriend?”

“Yeah, the blond in the leather.”

“Oh, God! Spike!” Buffy tried to pull her tubes out, but the nurse was there, gently pushing her back into the pillow. Spike had the gem and he was running around Sunnydale. She had to stop him.

“Don't worry. Your mom said that he told her he'd be back soon.” When Buffy just stared at her with a look of horror on her face, the nurse continued, “You should have seen him. He slipped in here, right after you were brought from surgery. He could have gotten into a lot of trouble. For such a dangerous looking guy, he was very sweet. When I came in, he was holding your hand.”

Buffy glanced at her hand and then frowned at the nurse. “He was here?”

“Yes. He's your boyfriend, right?”

“No.”

“That's a shame.” Carly sighed as she wrote something down on a clipboard. “I was thinking that the baby would be one beautiful child.”

The mention of a baby had Buffy's mind whirling again, but at the same time, she felt so tired that she fought to keep her eyes open. “There can't be a baby.”

“Oh, but there is. You can't be far along. I'm guessing that’s why you didn't know, but the blood tests they took while prepping you for surgery don't lie.”

Buffy sighed in relief. “They must have gotten my results mixed with another patient.”

“No. You are pregnant. They've got you on pentazocine instead of morphine, because pentazocine is not known to cause birth defects. But, you might hallucinate or have wild dreams.”

As the nurse went on about being careful when getting x-rays and to make sure they covered her abdomen with a lead shield, Buffy's mind was going wild with the possibilities. Parker had used a condom and spermicide gel. That had to have worked. Her eyes got heavy and she let them close. Buffy knew it was possible, and that no type of protection was 100 percent. He was dead. Spike had killed the father of her baby. Her baby...

A studio audience was suddenly before her. They cheered and waved their arms as she came out on to a brightly lit stage. Maury Povich smiled encouragingly and shook her hand before motioning towards the seat next to him. The lights were so bright, she could barely make out the sea of faces swimming before her, but she could hear their jeers and cheers.

“This is Buffy. She's here today to prove to her ex, Parker, once and for all that he is the father of her baby.” Maury motioned to the big screen behind her, and she turned to see a huge picture of a tiny infant with large light blue eyes, in a car seat, covered in a big yellow blanket.

As the audience oohed and ahhed, Buffy had to admit the baby was adorable.

“Let's bring out Parker,” Maury said.

When Parker came out, the audience booed him and he waved them off. He glared at Buffy while shaking Maury's hand and plopped himself down a couple of chairs away. Parker looked deathly pale, but he was moving around as if he was alive, which shocked Buffy. She was so stunned, she couldn't talk.

“There is no way that kid is mine,” Parker told Maury. “It doesn't even look like me.” As a whole the audience scoffed. “Look at that light hair and look at me. Mine is pitch black.”

“The eyes, they're blue!” a member of the audience yelled, and everyone clapped in agreement.

“I think the audience has a point,” Maury said, folding his arms across his chest and leaning back with a smug smile. “Mom here has green eyes.”

Parker's eyes widened. “They're light blue!” he argued. “Everyone in my family has brown eyes or dark blue ones, but never light blue like that.”

Maury held up a large manila envelope. “Well, I have the results right here, so we'll know soon enough. But, before we reveal the results, we have one more guest we want to bring out.”

“I knew it!” Parker yelled with a wave of a fist. “She had to be sleeping around.”

Maury pointed to the same area where Parker had come out and they watched as Spike came stumbling out.

“Watch it, mate!” Spike growled to some unseen person behind the stage.

The audience went wild with cheer, standing up and whooping. Spike stood tall and put a hand up to shield his eyes. He frowned and then directed his gaze to Buffy. Their eyes met. Then, he stalked over to her.

Maury held his hand out in greeting, but Spike held up two fingers and sneered at him. The irate vampire sat next to Buffy. “Didn't I tell you not to involve me in this?”

Buffy sank lower in her seat.

“This is Spike,” Maury told the camera. “He insists that there is no way that he could be the father, but he agreed to take a DNA test, because he is absolutely sure he can't father children.”

“You've got that right, you git.”

Parker leaned forward, directing his words to Buffy, but pointing at Spike. “You slept with this guy?” he asked incredulously.

The audience cheered, hoping for a fight.

“That's right, you bloody wanker. Shall we ask her who the better lover is?”

Parker sank back in his chair as the audience cheered. Buffy was so mortified, she couldn't see straight.

Spike continued, “And you'd better do right by the Slayer and help her take care of your spawn, or I'll bite you! Again.”

Maury frowned at Spike, but opened one of the folders. “Let's find out if Parker is the father of that beautiful baby, right now.” He made a show of reading the results and then glanced up. “Parker. By an accuracy of 99.99 percent, the tests show that you are...not the father.”

Buffy watched in horrified shock as Parker jumped up and danced across the stage to the cheers and boos of the out of control audience. Parker spun around and bowed dramatically before taking the stairs two at a time and leaving the stage.

“Now, in the case of Spike,” Maury said, as he opened a second envelope.

Buffy couldn't even look Spike in the eye.

He leaned in and said in a tone that almost sounded like he felt betrayed, “You shagged someone else?”

She turned to look at him and began to slowly shake her head. Maury's voice got warbly and slowed. “Spike, the test results show with 99.89 percent accuracy... that you... are ...the father...”

“Buffy? Buffy, honey, wake up.”

Her mom's face swam before her as she gasped, coming out of the dream...nightmare. “Mom?”

“You were shaking your head. Are you feeling pain?”

“No. I feel weird, but I'm not in any pain.”

Her mom looked so relieved. Buffy relaxed into her pillow and tried to forget about the dream. There couldn't be a baby and even if there was, it couldn't be Spike's.

“Spike!” Buffy said with concern. He was still out there with the gem, and she had to find a way to stop him.

Joyce put her hand over Buffy's. “He told me to tell you not to worry about him.” Joyce got a far off look and smiled, confusing Buffy even more than she already was. “It was kind of sweet actually. He was concerned that you would get stressed, but he promised not to do anything to make you sorry for letting him get the ring.”

“He didn't try to hurt anyone did he?” She wouldn't be able to live with herself if her split second decision to trust Spike to save her and her friends resulted in the death of others.

“No, and I don't understand why Mr. Giles was so concerned. Spike was the one who saved you all, wasn't he?”

“I don't know.” She tried to think about that night, but her last memory was of how terrified she had been to see Adam coming their way, knowing that Xander might be dead, her watcher was injured and that Willow was still so vulnerable. The last thing she remembered was the grave look of concern on Spike's face as he took his shirt off to put on her wound and then telling him where she had the Gem of Amara hidden. “I told him where the ring was, but I passed out after that.”

“Willow says Spike ran with her back to the house. She called 911 while he got the ring. Then Willow watched from the window as he went out and killed that monster and then lured a bunch of soldiers away from the scene so the ambulance could come in.”

“Oh, good,” Nurse Carly said. “I'll go tell the doctor that you're awake again.”

When the nurse was gone, Joyce put a hand to her face, eyes wide with concern. “You don't think she heard me, do you?”

“No, she'd only just walked in,” Buffy said. She was tired already.

Carly came back with a doctor right behind her. The nurse quietly asked Joyce to leave so that the doctor could examine Buffy.

“I'm Dr. Nester,” the short, dark-skinned man said while consulting her chart. “How do you feel this afternoon?”

“Tired.” She frowned as she took in the room again. She hated hospitals, and she needed to go find Spike and get that ring back again. “When can I go home?”

The doctor chuckled. “Even though your recovery is progressing much faster than any of us would have projected, you’re not ready to go just yet. “ He pulled the covers back from her legs. “I'm just going to have a look at the incision site on your thigh to determine how well it's healing.”

Buffy held her breath as he pulled back bandages.

Dr. Nester slowly took his hand from the bandages and tilted his head, staring at her and scratching his head. “I can't believe how fast you’re healing. Anyone who looked at your stitches would think that you had surgery last week, not just two nights ago.”

She shrugged, looking sheepish. “I've always been a fast healer.”

The doctor covered her wound back up and replaced the blankets. “Well, normally, I'd say it's too early to move you, but since things are going so well, I'm going to have them move you to a regular room today. It might take an hour or two before it happens.”

“How long do I have to be there?” she asked, hopeful that it wouldn't be long.

“I'm going to estimate two days, but we'll reevaluate that tomorrow afternoon.” He wrote something down on a pad and handed it to the nurse, who stood at the foot of the bed. “Did you want to make an appointment with an obstetrician? You could probably be seen before you leave the hospital.”

Buffy stretched to look behind the doctor, hoping her mom hadn’t heard him. “About that...none of my family knows. I'm not even sure that I am pregnant. Can we do another test, to be sure?”

“Well, we are positive that you are; but sure, I can order another test.”

“How soon?”

The doctor looked at Carly. “Have them get right on it.” When the nurse left to do his bidding, he said to Buffy, “I'll see you again tomorrow.”

By the time Buffy was settled in a new room, she was feeling a lot better. There was another bed in the room, but it was empty. Her mom had finally left to go home and get some sleep. It took a lot of prodding from Buffy to get her to leave, but Joyce had looked so exhausted.

Her wrist felt better. She flexed her arm and then rubbed the sore spot where the IV had been earlier. Bored, she used the remote to flip through the channels, but eventually gave up and kept it on a news program. Even with cable, there was nothing on at five o'clock but news.

Her heart skipped a beat when a good looking young man entered the room. She was sure he was there with her pregnancy test results, and looked at him expectantly.

“Hi there. I'm Troy. I'll be your nurse for this shift.” He pouted playfully when she looked crestfallen. “Hey, you could at least pretend like you’re happy I'm your nurse.” He got closer and whispered, “Not all my patients are as pretty as you. The old lady in the next room was overjoyed to see me, but I won't be turning my back on her. I think she tried to pinch my butt when I left just a minute ago.”

Buffy laughed softly. “I'm sorry, it's not you. I was just waiting for some test results to come. It's nice to meet you, Troy.”

He had dark hair and blue eyes, which reminded her of Parker. She looked down at her hands as he moved about the room.

“Well, I'm off to see my next patient. If you need anything, don't hesitate to push the call button. I'll be back in a couple of minutes to bring your dinner.” He looked at her chart. “Looks like it's mostly fluids for you tonight.”

Carly came into the room as Troy was leaving. “Hi, Buffy. I'm just getting ready to go home, but I noticed that your test results came back, so I thought I'd bring you the news.”

Buffy motioned for Carly to come over. “What does it say?”

“It's positive, just like the other test. You are very definitely pregnant. Congratulations.”

Bringing her hand to her stomach, Buffy tried to smile through her dread. “Thank you.”

After Carly left, Buffy said to the empty room, “Oh, God, what am I going to do now?”

 
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