Author: Kay Tee maybeshedoes@yahoo.com
Website: http://www.oocities.org/maybeshedoes//front.html
Distribution: Take it, but tell me where so I can visit.
Rated: R, for scarring. And maybe some death, slavery, and depression. You know, the usual.
Category: Series
Feedback: Please please please
Original Character Warning
Spoilers: Anything through 'Killed by Death' is up for grabs here. 'Passion' too.
Disclaimer: In my dreams I'm Joss... but during the day I have to face the cold hard truth-- I'm a hack who steals characters. But I'm not giving them back! Or I am, just don't sue me, all I have are speeding tickets and student loans.
Summary: Spike can't take care of Druscilla all by himself, so he gets himself a slave to help. Eve escapes. No, not really.
Author's notes: I've never been to the hospital or on fire. I'm just guessing on procedure here (okay, a lot of my guesses come from tv), if I'm totally off on anything, just let me know. Or ignore it. This is Sunnydale after all, and any abnormality can be chalked up to the Hellmouth.
Notes Two: Bucca Sanguis refers to Angelus's habit of healing Eve's wounds more quickly by using his saliva. It's from a Latin dictionary I was just messing around with. I don't really understand the language, so I don't know how well this would translate (there didn't seem to be a Latin word for saliva, so I used 'blood of the mouth.')
Maria had worked as a nurse at Sunnydale General for the last forty-three years. She had seen a lot of horrible things in her time, much worse things than the girl with the second and third degree burns who came in Thursday morning.
The Jane Doe would be fine, though most of her left arm and side would be scarred, as well as part of her neck, all the way up to her jaw and some of her left cheek. Plastic surgery could take care of the facial scarring, but so far they had found no identification on the girl, and they didn't know what kind of insurance she might have, so they didn't arrange for the plastic surgeon.
There was one thing about this young woman that was more disturbing than any other Maria had seen; the girl was covered in old scars. The lash marks across Jane Doe's back, and the cigarette burn in the shell of her ear were horrifying enough, but then Rick had gasped and run from the ER, holding his hand over his mouth, and looking nauseous. Rick had only been a nurse there for six months, so Maria assumed he just had a weak stomach still. She was rather annoyed at his rapid exit, and walked around the table to get the girl in position so the doctor could work on her.
That was when Maria had seen them. Brand marks, all the way down Jane Doe's side. They were completely healed, but they looked like they must have been incredibly painful when they were first inflicted. After a moment of just starring at the marks, Maria snapped out of her stupor when the doctor asked her what the hold up was, and she finished cutting the patient's clothes off. Only after the shirt was completely cut away did Maria realize the brands spelled out a word: Angelus.
The doctor looked up in surprise as a green-faced Maria dashed from the operating room.
***
Muzzy-headed, Eve opened her eyes carefully. She found herself alone in a hospital room. Confused, she started to sit up, but soreness all down her left side stopped her.
Oh, and suddenly Eve remembered the previous evening. The fire.
She had been sure she was going to die, but here she was in a hospital. Perhaps the slayer had saved her?
Eve thought about the ramifications if that was true. She was free, and in a public building... Eve had long ago accepted her role as a slave, but ever since the love spell, she sometimes forgot. Forgot not to feel, not to need. She hadn't given freedom serious thought in a while, but she found the concept particularly appealing at the moment. The small pang of regret she felt at the loss of Spike and Druscilla was completely overshadowed by the exhilaration of not having to live in fear of being tortured or set on fire or starved at the whim of her captors.
All questions about where she would go once she left the hospital were immediately blocked from her mind. Eve needed this. Needed to be taken care of and then released into the wild. Allowed to be herself. Her real self, whoever that might turn out to be. And if the slayer had rescued her, then maybe Eve could join the scoobies. Fight evil, instead of getting it breakfast...
The idea had merit, and Eve started to smile, but she had to wonder why she could still feel her wounds. She wanted to be numb all over already, dammit.
On cue, a stout nurse walked into the room whose hair looked like a ferret with a perm had just been plopped on her head.
She stopped short when she saw Eve was awake. "Oh. You're up. We thought you'd be under much longer." The nurse bustled over to the bed, avoiding making eye contact. All business, she prepared a syringe for Eve.
"Who are you?" The girl asked. "Where am I?"
"I'm Maria, and you are in the burn victims unit at Sunnydale General Hospital," Maria checked the girl's forehead, but she didn't have a fever. "You're lucky, you're the only one here right now, so you get this big room all to yourself."
Really, Eve would have preferred some company. The slayer maybe, or at least a security guard. Because unless he thought she'd died in the fire, Angelus would be coming for his slave. Unless he died in the fire...
"What are you giving me? It won't affect my thinking, will it?"
Maria had dimples, so people tended to immediately relax when she smiled at them. Not Jane Doe. "I'm giving you a painkiller. It should make you a little sleepy, but don't worry, we'll take care of you."
Eve shook her head, "I would rather be in pain than sleepy." Better safe than sorry, always.
The nurse gave Eve a strange look, as if she knew... Eve looked down at herself, at the paper hospital gown she was wearing, and guessed, "You saw... the marks?"
Maria swallowed hard. She was a professional; she dealt with horrible scars all the time, she shouldn't be so disturbed. "Yes," she answered quietly, "but whoever did that you isn't here now. You're safe."
"Humor me?" Eve pleaded.
Maria hesitated briefly, but nodded. "Okay, but if the pain gets to be too much, you just hit that little button by your bed, and I'll give you the shot."
"Thank you," Eve breathed.
The nurse picked up a clipboard from the end of the bed, all business. "We need to know your personnel information; if you have any medical allergies; insurance, you know the drill. It'll just take a minute."
Eve nodded. "Okay."
Maria pulled her pen out of a pocket, clicked it on, and asked, "What's your full name?"
"Eve," the patient answered automatically. Maria was about to ask for a last name when Eve said, "Actually, no, it's not. My name... my name is Carolyn Marx."
***
She blinked awake at the enormous pain in her side. Turning to reach for the button to summon the nurse, Eve realized she had a visitor.
"Angelus," she said blankly. Of course. She had fallen asleep, despite her efforts to stay alert, and now she had been discovered.
Angelus had peeled back her bandages and was examining the wounds. "These are going to scar," he said, his usual delight absent from his voice.
Eve said nothing, but frowned in confusion.
Her master glared at her. "If I wanted you repulsive, I would have done the work myself." He flicked his hand angrily at the raw, ropey flesh on Eve's side.
She flinched hard, and Angelus actually looked a little apologetic.
He sliced his wrist on his fangs, offering his blood to Eve. "Just take it," he insisted harshly when she hesitated. "If I knew something else that would heal you fast, I would get it."
She glanced at him questioningly as she sucked on his wrist.
Angelus rolled his eyes. "You think I want a broken slave?" Angelus watched the emotions cross plainly over Eve's face. Aww, the girl thought she was going to get loose. How sweet.
"Can't have you all crippled when we move into our new home," Angelus said lightly, "there's going to be lots of work for you to do."
He sighed in exaggerated exasperation. "That damn watcher's lost his mind. Kill a guy's true love *once* and he sets your home on fire. Not that it was much of a home." Angelus's face softened slightly as he promised, "I'm going to find a nice place for us. Something with a view."
He pulled his wrist away. "That's enough."
Eve watched her master rise and stretch elegantly. She said nothing; truthfully, her throat ached from her ordeal, and she didn't think that talking to Angelus was really worth the trouble.
The vampire studied Eve's face before warning, "Now, Evie, don't get too eager and go running away. Wouldn't want to have to go chasing after you." He struck a thoughtful pose, his tone playful, "How many Marxes do you think there are in Maine? A few dozen? More?" He grinned, pleased with himself and the look of stark horror on Eve's face. "Guess I'd just have to visit all of them."
Eve said nothing, but her jaw clenched visibly as she tried not to show any reaction to Angelus's words.
The vampire ran his hand gently across Eve's face. She closed her eyes but didn't flinch when his fingers passed over the burnt skin on her cheek. His hand stopped, gripping her head to hold it still while he lapped gently at the wound.
Eve knew he was applying his saliva to the injury, and that this would make her heal faster. "What next?" She asked with some trepidation when Angelus finally released her.
He stood back to look at his slave. The skin on the left side of her body was hideously twisted and knarled. She looked like a demon. Remembering a time when he had wanted nothing more than to tear this girl's clothes off and throw her down on the nearest horizontal surface, Angelus sighed. "Now you get some sleep."
Eve hadn't opened her eyes, and she didn't even after she heard the door to her room open and shut.
***
The missing persons report was old, and the picture didn't really look like the burn victim, but Maria figured there was a chance this girl was the same one who'd gone missing in Maine almost three years ago.
She bustled into the room where Carolyn Marx was staying, but stopped short at the sight in front of her.
The patient seemed to be sleeping peacefully as if she hadn't woken since Maria left her. But the girl's bandages had all been removed and lay in a heap on the floor by the side of the bed.
Thoughts of possible infection overrode all thoughts of police reports, and Maria hurried out of the room for cleaning supplies.
***
"We're leaving," Angelus announced the next night.
Eve gestured to the tubes still stuck into her arm and nose. "I don't think they're done treating me-" She quickly cut herself off at Angelus's sharp look.
"They cleaned you up right after I was done with you," he complained. "If the Bucca Sanguis is going to work, it can't be wiped clean right after I apply it."
Eve argued, "Humans are more fragile than you know. It's the smoke inhalation that's really dangerous. That's why they've got me on oxygen still."
Angelus slammed a fist onto the bed in frustration. Except the fist landed on Eve's thigh and her eyes went wide at the force of his blow. She managed not to make a sound of pain though.
"Fine. You stay, and I kill the nurse if she tries to wash you off again. How's that sound?" Angelus smiled a little at the thought.
Eve tried to explain patiently, "She only cleaned me up because you left all the bandages off. She was afraid I'd get an infection."
"You won't get infected if she stops cleaning the Bucca Sanguis off!" Angelus nearly shouted, standing abruptly and pacing the room uncomfortably. He hated wasting time at the hospital. Buffy was really starting to deteriorate under the pressure since he'd killed the gypsy woman, and he wanted to be out there, giving his ex-lover that last little shove into madness.
"Okay," he said after some consideration, "if I bring you bandages, can you redo them so the nurse can't tell I removed them?"
Eve shifted warily as she said, "I can barely move, and um, I'm not sure I can reach everywhere anyway."
Angelus's eyes darkened. "I am *not* putting bandages on you. I-" He sighed in defeat. "Fine," he said, but it was more a growl than a word, "I'll be right back."
And Angelus swept out of the room.
***
It was the strangest thing.
Every night Maria cleaned and disinfected Carolyn Marx's wounds, and every night when she would check in on the girl a few hours later, Carolyn's bandages had obviously been changed by inexpert hands.
Maria tried to keep watch on the door to the burn victim's room while she made her rounds, but she never saw anyone come or go.
Another mystery was how rapidly the girl was healing. Carolyn Marx had only been in the hospital a week, but her wounds were almost completely mended. The one drawback to the rapid healing was that by the time the plastic surgeon was called, he had deemed the scars too old to fix without a major operation, scolding the doctor for waiting so long for a consultation.
Maria hadn't notified the police about the missing persons report yet. She wanted to talk to Carolyn Marx about it first, but she hadn't managed to do so. Tonight, she resolved, she would finally approach the girl.
***
Eve smiled in her sleep as a tongue tickled across her cheek.
"Wakey wakey," Druscilla commanded.
The slave was instantly awake and alert as she had been trained to be. "Druscilla!" Eve cringed at her own surprised pleasure. Then she smiled slightly abashedly, "It's nice to see you, Dru." Eve couldn't stop her eyes from looking behind the vampiress for her companion.
"Just me tonight, luv," Druscilla sing-songed, pulling a glass vial from her pocket. "Daddy's whispering to the kitten." She grinned, leaning in excitedly, "The mean slayer is hurt."
Eve raised an eyebrow. "Did Angelus finally kill Buffy?" She asked.
Druscilla didn't answer, too preoccupied with carefully uncorking the vial and holding it up to Eve's lips. "Drink it all up, sweet, you have to take your medicine."
The slave hesitated. She guessed by the pungent smell that the liquid was some kind of potion, and she really didn't want any part of that, but she knew well the consequences of denying her mistress, so she quickly gulped the drink down.
Druscilla smiled beatifically. "All better soon," she promised, dragging one nail across Eve's almost healed and itchy cheek, ripping through the bandage. "Except for the pretty swirls. Oh, Evest," the mad woman's voice dropped to low reverence, "you will be so beautiful."
Eve watched as her mistress floated on her feet, moving backwards and out of the room. She *missed* Druscilla so much...
Eve shook her head, willing herself to drop the subject; as soon as the hospital said she was okay, she was going to go away. Angelus was probably bluffing when he implied that he would massacre every Maine family that shared her name, Druscilla was well again, and Spike was almost back to full strength. Eve was not going to allow herself to continue to be abused. She would join the scoobies. They might not be the most entertaining or gentle bunch, but they were, for now, her only hope.
***
The potion seemed to fill Eve with energy, and she decided to go for a walk.
She was no longer hooked up to an IV, and removing the oxygen mask was not a difficult task. Eve made sure to turn off the tank before she left the room though, not wanting to experience another fire any time soon.
She pulled on the robe that had been provided, roughly tore the ripped bandage off her face, and wandered off down the hall.
Eve made a few circuits of the hospital before she made it to the third floor and the children's ward. She didn't even see them sitting there, but they saw her.
Xander stood up first, blocking her path. "Deadboy send you to deliver the message 'cause he couldn't get through?" He said sarcastically.
Eve's eyes narrowed dangerously at the boy. He had so casually and unapologetically hurt her, and now he insulted her? She was tempted to- but she was interrupted by two voices as Giles, Willow, and Cordelia turned to follow Xander's line of sight.
"Eve, oh my god, what happened to you?" Willow asked.
"Are you staying in the children's ward too?" Cordelia asked. "Because it would be funny if Angel was trying to see *you* and couldn't get past Xander."
The two girls speaking in unison, they were barely intelligible.
Giles decided to translate, "We haven't heard from you in some time. We thought you may have had something to do with Angel's recent... killing. Is there a good reason you are here now?" He took in the girl's hospital garb and the bandages on her left arm, but wouldn't have been surprised if she was wearing a costume.
"Oh." Eve's eyes narrowed as she recognized the accusation in Giles's voice. "Well, I've been here all week. That's why I couldn't stop by."
"You're in the children's ward?" Willow asked.
Eve shook her head. "Burn unit." She casually turned her head as if looking at something across the hall. The four scoobies all gasped simultaneously at the sight of the exposed burn on her cheek.
Cordelia's eyes lit up in realization. "Oh! 'Cause Giles set the place where you live on fire, and now you're going to be horribly scarred." The cheerleader looked rather pleased with herself for putting two and two together.
Willow was clearly horrified and Xander appeared apologetic.
Giles remarked quietly, "You survived, I see."
"Well, yeah," Eve frowned. "Didn't Buffy rescue me?"
Giles exhaled loudly, removing his glasses, but not bothering to clean them. Now that Eve looked, he seemed to have aged decades since they last spoke. His eyes were dull and his shoulders slumped; it seemed to be all he could do to put on a show of normalcy for his pupils.
"No," he looked off over Eve's head, but for all she knew, that was just because he couldn't see far enough to find her eyes. "Buffy was too busy saving me. She didn't go back inside."
He did seem a little chagrined, which was more than Eve was used to seeing when someone hurt her, so she shrugged. "No big deal. Hey, I lived."
"Yeah," Cordelia interjected, "but you're not gonna look like Kelley on 90210; I mean, you were pretty, and now you're just gonna be... Freddy Kruegerish."
"Cordy," Xander hissed, putting his hand on her back, silently begging her to stop talking.
"Uh, yes. How badly were you burned?" Giles asked a little sheepishly.
Eve scuffed a bare foot on the tile floor. "I'll live. It's only a little on one side, and I really don't normally see a lot of mirrors, so..." She trailed off, shrugging uncomfortably. She didn't particularly care what she looked like, but the watcher's discomfort seemed to be catching. "Umm, I better get back to my room," Eve excused herself awkwardly, hurrying away.
Willow looked after the slave sadly. "She really was so pretty," the hacker sighed.
Giles replaced his glasses, watching the retreating figure thoughtfully.
***
Letting herself back into her room, Eve slumped on the bed, but jumped up, startled, when she realized she wasn't alone.
"Oh, it's you," Eve recognized Maria. The nurse was sitting in the visitor's chair across from the bed, just next to the door.
"Yes," the nurse gave the girl a dimply smile, but Eve was still immune. Maria took a calming breath before continuing, "I wanted to talk to you about something."
The nurse handed a piece of paper to Eve, who barely glanced at it. She had been waiting for this since she'd given Maria her name a week ago. Eve had begun to think that maybe she had never been reported missing. "I want to ask you something," Eve started, turning the conversation on its head.
Maria nodded for Eve to continue.
"Were you here when I was brought in? Or do you know anyone who was?" Eve asked.
Confused, but willing to play along for the moment, Maria replied, "I was here when you were checked in. Why-"
"Who brought me here?" Eve interrupted. "I know I didn't walk."
"Oh no," Maria smiled indulgently, the power of her dimples still failing on the girl opposite her. "You were carried here by a young man. Tall, dark hair..." She saw Eve's face darken and assumed the girl knew who she was referring to.
"*He* rescued me?" Eve muttered to herself. She thought about it-- Giles's fire would have killed her, effectively taking her away from her masters. But Angelus wasn't going to let her go that easily.
Eve sighed in acceptance. She looked down at the report in her hands. 'Carolyn Marx: Missing.' That just wasn't her anymore.
"This is you, right?" Maria interrupted Eve's thoughts. The nurse really wasn't sure. The girl in the picture seemed much more than three years younger than Eve. Also, their noses and jaws appeared to be slightly different shapes.
The slave stared at the picture for a long moment before shaking her head no. She explained, "This isn't me. My name is Eve."
Maria rose and took the paper from the girl. "I thought-"
She was interrupted as the door to the hospital room banged open. "Evie," Angelus crowed, "time to go home, I've got just the place."
He looked Maria up and down with disdain before vamping out. "Dinner," he shrugged happily, grabbing the older woman before she even had time to snap out of her shock and scream.
Eve ignored the slurping noises, going through the motions of gathering her things, though she knew there was nothing in that hospital room for her to take.
She paused at the missing persons advertisement, scooping it off the floor where Maria had dropped it. After a moment's consideration, Eve crumpled the paper up and threw it away.
Angelus grinned into the nurse's neck, noting his slave's actions.