Sunnydale Memorial Hospital, Sunnydale, California, Late April 2003 (The Same Night/Tuesday FT)

[brat_inslayage]

Some of the girls who'd escaped more or less unscathed-- physically, anyway, although Kennedy wouldn't place any bets on any of them being emotionally or mentally okay-- had gone back to the house. Kennedy would have counted herself in that group; she hadn't taken anything more than some superficial cuts from the broken bottles, and the bruising would go away on its own.

She'd definitely gotten off easy. The girls who hadn't made it... even going back to retrieve their bodies was too much of a risk, and nobody was happy about that.

No power on earth was going to keep her away from the hospital tonight, though. She wasn't about to leave the girls who'd taken the worst of it and walked away. Or Shannon, the poor Potential who'd been used by Caleb to send that message to them in the first place.

Or Xander. Maybe it was some lingering doubt from what the First had said to her, but she kept feeling like what had happened to him was partly her fault.

Willow	Willow sat beside Xander's hospital bed. "So I was thinking maybe card games and some cherry flavored off-brand gelatin? Only not one inside of the other because both messy and also kind of gross."
Xander	"Much like what would happen when it came my turn to deal," Xander pointed out. He fanned out an imaginary deck of cards in his right hand, and watched intently -- with both eyes -- as the bandaged stump of his other arm did absolutely nothing to stop them from fluttering invisibly down to the blanket. "Unless we're playing 52 Pick Up."
Willow	"Nah, because then I have to count them and it stops being fun." Especially since Willow wasn't allowed to color code and put them in order since supposedly it took too long. "On the upside consider your future in arm wrestling."
Xander	Xander nodded just vigorously enough to make him wonder when he'd last pressed that IV button for more Dilaudid, and whether it was too soon or too late for another stab at it. "Especially when I tell them I'm using the one with the hook. I'll win 'em all by default."
Willow	"Plus your non-hook arm will have the strength of two," Willow pointed out. "You'd be like some kind of superhero in comic books with strength and a hook who I can't name because all I can think of is Peter Pan and I don't think crocodile fear sounds very fun for you. Or anyone, really."
Xander	"Yeah, I'd really hate to add that to my shiny new phobia about maniacs in religious uniforms." Xander nodded, still managing something that pretended to be a smile. "Maybe I could skip the hook and get a hammer attached instead? Same level of arm-wrestling threat, badass superhero name that also works if I ever go into the porn industry, and my career as a carpenter wouldn't be over." Which it was. Pretty much. Then again, on the bright side, the world might be ending anyway, so...
Willow	"Alternatively? Nail gun," Willow said. "Useful for both carpentry and scenarios which are fighty in nature."
Xander	"True, true," Xander said, looking down at the place where his arm...wasn't. Not making eye contact with Willow was a survival tactic right now. Looking there was... one of the poorer choices he'd made in his Olympic gold-medal-winning history of them. "Though 'The Nailer' really only works as a porn name."
Willow	"At least you'd be one of a kind?" Willow replied. She'd been going for a joke but it was hard to mention one of anything without thinking of what Xander lost and Willow was not starting to cry, damn it. She'd promised herself that she wouldn't.
Xander	"Will..." Yeah, see, the thing was, so had he. There were a couple or three faces that had a straight line to his gut, though, right past the Harris wiseass forcefield, and hers was one of them, if he was stupid enough to look up. He was so totally stupid enough. "Please don't."
Willow	Willow looked down and tried her best not to cry.
Kennedy	Kennedy had just checked in on Rona, who had a cast and a sling and some hefty painkillers and was otherwise good to go, then stopped to talk to a few of the other girls before she found her way to Xander's room. Not a surprise at all that Willow would be there. Nor did Kennedy particularly expect her to leave any time soon. "Willow," she called from the doorway. She wasn't exactly ready to go in yet.
Willow	Willow needed to compose herself after leaving Xander's room. She looked up at Kennedy and tried not to look like she'd been crying.
Kennedy	Yeah, Kennedy was going to believe that. She didn't comment on it, anyway. "Hey," she said quietly, reaching out to offer a hug if Willow wanted one. "You could use a few minutes' break, huh?" She wasn't expecting Willow to leave for a while, but wow, first Shannon and now this, that was a lot of hospital time lately.
Willow	"Could I get a break for a few lifetimes?" Willow replied. She wanted a hug. Her side of it might have been more like a cling.
Kennedy	Clinging was fine. Kennedy was good for that, and might've been doing a little clinging herself. "I'll see what I can do about that, but I can at least promise you a few minutes to start with. That work?"
Willow	"It works," Willow said. Then she focused on clinging, because thinking of what did and didn't work only made her want to break down crying.
Kennedy	If she cried, Kennedy worried she might cry. It had been that kind of night. "It'll--" What, be okay? "Things aren't gonna suck this much forever." Maybe she should just stick to the clinging...
Willow	"I'll take right now," Willow said. She didn't want to upset Kennedy either. Instead she focused on clinging, and appreciating the way that Kennedy helped her feel connected to solid ground.
Kennedy	And hey, Kennedy was good for that. She didn't know what to say to make things seem any better, but if just hanging on for a while helped Willow stay grounded, she could do that.

***

Kennedy	Once she'd convinced Willow to take a few minutes to wash her face or go find food, Kennedy... paused outside the door. Okay, she was as tough as they seemed to think she was. It wasn't like she hadn't seen people lose limbs before. She could totally do this. She could-- Fight off the urge to be queasy again. Or worse, cry. "Hey," she said quietly, not really looking at Xander. Yeah, really tough girl here.
Xander	It was easier for him to look her in the eye. That counted for something. ...He'd meant in comparison to Willow when he thought it, but the double meaning caught up to Xander a second later, and he couldn't stop a short, dry cough of a laugh from escaping before he shook his head. "Hey. I'd wave, but you'd get a jello bath." No, off-brand cherry gelatin, but it was still in the plastic spoon in his only hand at the moment.
Kennedy	"Actually not my idea of fun." How did they do this? Make jokes like this in super-horrible situations? Because as listlessly as that came out of Kennedy's mouth, she was failing at it. Okay, crying? Really not something she wanted to do, and whatever brain-to-mouth-filter she'd developed was too much effort to spare so she blustered right into what she wanted to say. "When I told you about-- other you, what he said-- this wasn't what I thought was gonna happen."
Xander	How? With great ease and long practice because it beat the hell out of actually talking about real stuff, duh. God , Kennedy. "Are you sure? 'Cause secretly manipulating me into getting my arm ripped off by warning me to protect my eye -- that'd be some badass super-villainy, right there. Andrew would fanboy you for the rest of your life ."
Kennedy	Hey, some people in this conversation hadn't had seven years to get that practice in, and what about Kennedy's brief tenure in Sunnydale so far even hinted that she had the kind of self-restraint to keep from talking about real stuff anyway? ...God, Kennedy. "Because that was what I always wanted. My very own mega-nerd groupie." She leaned against the wall near the door and rolled her eyes half-heartedly. "...actually there was this whole thing where I wanted to thank you for saving my ass back there, but the fallout, not so great, so..."
Xander	"It's the drugs talking and if you ask me later I won't remember this conversation, but as body parts go, your ass is more important than my arm, so there's that." He wasn't even... really... being nice, there. It was just a statement of fact. A cynical one, even, and that might have come out in his voice. Potential Slayer's life, normal guy's limb. One of these things is more likely to help avert the apocalypse.
Kennedy	Pragmatism. She could dig that. Kennedy laughed, a little shakily. "Conversation? What conversation? 'cause I know we were totally not talking about my ass here." Yeah, there was only so much she could mention his arm. The one that wasn't there.
Xander	"Especially if Willow asks. 'Cause you wouldn't think so, but that chick's got a good left hook, and I haven't been fitted for mine yet."
Kennedy	"One that'll match other-you's eyepatch?" Kennedy offered. Should've been a joke, except for how it brought everything right back around to that warning and the fun briar patch of what-ifs. Eh. It made a decent-ish joke effort.
Xander	Xander appreciated both sentiments. Insofar as he was undrugged enough to see the subtext. At least he still had 20/20 foresight, too. He still paused before answering, though. "...Does he have a parrot? Because it's so not fair if he has a parrot. I want a parrot."
Kennedy	"Didn't ask." A faint hint of a smile crossed her face for a moment. "Maybe I'll get you one if we get through all this."
Xander	"When. The word you're looking for there is when." Say it with a little more conviction, Harris, and she might even believe you.
Kennedy	Well, she was trying to anyway. Kennedy twisted one corner of her mouth into something vaguely approaching smile territory. "Was trying to spin it as an incentive." Not really, but she could backpedal.

[[as per usual, nfi/nfb, ooc-okay. deals with post-fight physical trauma and maiming. adapted from and based on btvs 7x19, "empty places," and preplayed with thanks to the most excellent willbedone and needsaparrot, the latter of whom is to be entirely blamed for the one significant change we made from canon.]]