The One Thing

Author's Note: < > indicates thought, ** indicated emphasis.

Willow paced the halls of Sunnydale General, tears running down her cheeks. There had been no word about Oz for hours. Buffy had defeated the mayor without major damage to herself, Cordelia had suffered a sprained ankle and broken wrist, Xander had a broken leg and was confined to a wheelchair, and Giles had some broken ribs. Willow had gotten off fairly easy, physically anyway. A few bruises and scratches here and there. She had used magick to protect herself and had tried to protect the others. But she would never forgive herself for not protecting Oz, for leaving him.
The others were waiting with her, trying to help, telling her that Oz wouldn't die, that the doctors would save him. She could tell, though that they didn't really believe it. They had all seen him as he was loaded into the ambulance, unconscious and covered in blood, his ribs visible through the gashes. Only Giles seemed to have any faith at all, and as each hour passed, it seemed to wane more and more. He sat hunched over in the waiting room, a cup of coffee in his hands, mumbling to himself, "It can't have failed, it can't fail." Willow had tried once to ask him what "it" was, but he had just looked up at her, and said "I'm sorry, Willow. I'm so very sorry." She hadn't known what to do with that, and she turned away so that he wouldn't see her anger at him.
But she knew that wasn't fair. The slayerettes had needed her help, Giles had just been the messenger. And Oz himself had told her to leave, to go help in the fight. Willow had made the decision to leave him by himself, and she was angry at herself for it. He had been in surgery for five hours now, each minute spent worrying, speculating, and crying. Willow returned to the waiting room, emotionally spent. She had no more tears, and could no longer hold herself up. She sank into a hard, uncomfortable chair in the corner and leaned her head against the wall. Buffy sat down next to her and put a comforting arm around her, saying nothing. Willow was grateful for the silence, putting her head on Buffy's shoulder.
"Excuse me, are you the group waiting on Mr. Hanlen?"
Willow looked up to see a doctor standing in the doorway. "Yes," she said, standing. "What can you tell us?"
The doctor cleared his throat as everyone else stood and walked towards him, Xander being pushed by Cordelia. "Is anyone here his immediate family?"
Willow shook her head. "His parents are in France and his older brother is stationed in Munich. I tried to call them, but…." She broke off as she felt a hard elbow in her ribs.
Buffy leaned over to whisper in her ear. "Will, you *are* his family now, remember?"
"Oh! I guess I'm just not used to it yet." She turned back to the doctor and said proudly, "He's my husband."
Dr. Mackenzie looked at her skeptically. He searched through the folder in his hand, and raised his eyebrows. "His insurance form says that he's single."
"We just got married last night," Willow told him, showing him her ring.
He still seemed doubtful, and checked the age on the forms. Nineteen. Unusual, but not unheard of. He looked up again, into the face of the young man's wife. She looked awfully young, but he wasn't about to call her a liar. "The surgery and blood transfusion were successful. The wounds looked worse than they really were. Now don't get me wrong," he added hastily when he saw their relief. "He is still in serious condition. The animal that attacked him did considerable damage, but the gashes seemed a lot smaller once we cleaned off the surrounding blood. It was kind of strange, actually…" The doctor trailed off, obviously thinking about the delicate operation. He gathered his thoughts and said, "Your husband will need to stay here for at least ten days to fully recover."
Willow nodded. "Can I see him?"
"Just you for now. But he's still under the anesthetic, so he won't be awake yet. And when he is awake, he'll be somewhat delusional from the medication we've given him for pain."
"I understand. I just want to be there when he wakes up."
"This way then." Dr. Mackenzie led her down the hallway.
Willow followed him, her mind racing. What had the doctor meant? What was strange? As they arrived at Oz's room, Willow discovered that she didn't really care anymore. Dr. Mackenzie opened the door, and she could see him lying there, looking pale. Other than that, he looked like he could have been taking a nap. She pushed past the doctor and went to his bedside, taking his hand.
"I'll give you some privacy. Talk to him. Let him know he's alive. He had a close call," Dr. Mackenzie said, letting himself out.
"Oz? Can you hear me?" Willow felt silly. But if it would help Oz, she would do anything. "Buffy and everybody are outside, waiting to see you. We did it, you know. The mayor is dead, and we're all basically okay. You…you got hurt the most, but the doctor says you'll be fine now. You will have to stay here for a while, but then you can go home. And you'll be fine…You'll be fine." Willow repeated the words, knowing that she was comforting herself more than Oz. "I tried to call your parents, but they were out. I left a message at the hotel front desk. I hope they'll call soon." She broke off, unable to say anything more. The relief she felt at seeing him alive took away all speech and thought. So she just sat there, stroking his forehead and holding his hand.
**
Buffy sat in the waiting room, idly flipping the TV channels with the remote control. Angel sat next to her, having rushed to the hospital as soon as night fell. As she settled on an old sitcom, the news broke in with a special report. "Giles! You might want to see this."
Giles came over. "Turn it up, Buffy." She struggled with the remote, getting it tangled in the wire that fastened it to the table.
"The pandemonium ensued just as the valedictorian was giving her speech. Reports are unconfirmed, but we understand that a wild animal, possibly a bear, attacked the graduation ceremony at Sunnydale High this afternoon. Among the victims was the town's mayor, Richard Wilkins III. He is apparently missing and presumed dead. It seems that several students and family members were injured and some, dead. We will have more updates as the story breaks."
"Well, at least my parents aren't here to see that," Cordelia said. "If they had, they would be here in, like, ten seconds, making sure their baby was okay, issuing orders to the doctors, and just being a general nuisance."
"Well my parents are in town and so are Willow's." Xander sighed. "Whether my parents were sober enough to catch it is questionable, but you can bet we will have two very worried Rosenburgs here within ten minutes."
**
"Excuse me, Miss. We're looking for our daughter. We were told that the survivors of the high school ceremony were brought here." Ira Rosenburg did his best to remain calm. It was awfully hard to do when his wife was keening and wailing in his ear.
"Yes, Sir, they were. What is your daughter's name, please?"
"Willow Rosenburg."
"I'm sorry, Sir, we have admitted no one under that name. Is there a different name she could be under?" The young nurse was tired and had seen more tragedy and grieving parents in this one day than she had ever witnessed before.
"No. She was the valedictorian. We heard on the news that the bear attacked the stage first. She must be here."
"Ira…What if !?! Oh God, she's dead isn't she?!?! They don't have her registered here because she's in the morgue! Oh, my poor little girl!" Sheila Rosenburg could no longer hold in her histrionics.
"I'm sure that she's not, Dear. Why don't you sit down over here, and I'll find out what is happening." Ira sat his wife down on a couch in the hallway and went back to the admissions desk.
Sheila looked down the hall, and saw a very familiar face in the waiting room. She got up and slowly worked her way over to Willow's oldest friend. "Xander," she said, resting a hand on his shoulder.
"Mrs. Rosenburg," Xander started, craning his neck to see her.
She noticed his position, and walked to face him. "Do you know what has happened to my Willow?" She could see that he had been crying, and that scared her. She could see that all of Willow's friends were around him. The one with the tough girl attitude, Bunny; her boyfriend, < what was his name? Well, whatever it is, he's much too old for her. > Cordelia, the snob who had teased her precious daughter everyday of her life until she, for some bizarre reason, decided to be friends with her. And the librarian, the one always helping Willow with her studies. Why would they all be here if nothing had happened to Willow? "Ira!!" she yelled down the hall. "She *is* here!"
As Willow's father rushed down the hall, Xander worked to calm his wife down. "She's okay, Mrs. Rosenburg. She barely got any scratches."
"I don't believe you. You all look so upset. Why, if not because of my daughter?"
Ira lay a hand on Sheila's arm. "Now, Honey, hear the boy out. If he says Willow's fine, then I'm sure she's fine. Xander," he intoned, turning to him, "Where is Willow?"
"She's with Oz."
"Oz?" Sheila questioned. "Who is…Oh, that's right." < Her *boyfriend* She doesn't need some punk musician with her, she needs her parents! >
Xander paused, and looked at her kind of funny. "Yeah, Oz. He was injured rather badly and just got out of surgery."
Giles interrupted, realizing that nothing short of seeing Willow would calm her mother down. "They are in room 339, Mrs. Rosenburg. Just down that hall."
"Thank you, Mr.….ah?"
"Giles, Ma'am. Rupert Giles."
"Thank you, Mr. Giles." Sheila took off down the hallway.
"Nine minutes and fifteen seconds," Xander said, looking at his watch. "Did I call it or did I call it?"

Continues
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