No longer sleeping the day away.

[flaming-muse.livejournal.com]

Continued from here.

A little thrill went through Spike every time he heard those words. "I love you, too. So much. The thought of losing you was - " He broke off, not wanting to put that burden on Wesley. It wasn't his fault or his problem. "Let's just say I'm glad you're as strong as you are."

Comments

[flaming-muse.livejournal.com]

Smiling at Wesley with a combination of amusement and love that made him feel warm inside, Spike said, "My mum always thought so." He turned his hand in Wesley's grip so that he could thread their fingers together, but whatever he might have said next was cut off as the door opened.

Not letting go of Wesley, Spike turned to find a nurse, this one a bit younger and less friendly than Dolores, entering the room.

With a brief, polite nod to Spike, she went to check Wesley's monitors and asked, "How are you feeling, Mr. Wyndam-Pryce? Are you ready for some more pain medication?"

[wesleysgirl.livejournal.com]

"I suppose so," Wesley said, at the same time the door opened again and Fred's anxious face peered around the corner.

"Hi," Fred said softly. "Are we interrupting something important? Because we can come back..."

"No," Wesley said. "Come in. Please." He turned to look at the nurse again. "Let's wait on that, if we can?"

She nodded, frowning. "A few minutes. But you really shouldn't be having visitors."

[flaming-muse.livejournal.com]

"We won't stay long, but we wanted to see him," Fred said, taking a small step into the room.

The nurse looked over at Fred and apparently didn't judge her to be a huge threat to her patient's well-being. "I'll come back in a little while with his meds, and then you'll have to go."

"Not like he'd be making much sense after anyway," Spike commented, moving back a bit so that Fred could see Wesley more easily, though he didn't yet let go of his hand.

[wesleysgirl.livejournal.com]

Fred looked small, her shoulders slumped forward. Something about the way her eyes were darting back and forth reminded Wesley of when she'd first come back from Pylea. She looked back over her shoulder into the hallway. "Well, come on, you guys, he's not going to bite you." She smiled apologetically at Wesley as Lorne and Gunn came into the room.

"We promise we'll only stay a few minutes," Lorne told the nurse as she headed out the door.

Gunn and Lorne both looked a bit off, as well -- shell-shocked, perhaps -- and Wesley realized why. "You got them back."

[flaming-muse.livejournal.com]

"Yeah," Gunn replied. His voice sounded a bit hollow.

"It was about as much fun as visiting my dear old mother," Lorne said with a grimace as he walked over to the foot of Wesley's bed.

Fred and Gunn trailed after him, and Spike stepped sideways toward Wesley's head to give them room, loosening his grip on his hand in case Wesley wanted to pull away.

"How are you doing?" Fred asked, including both Wesley and Spike in the question.