Scene 9
[Writer's note: Yes, this is where I become lazier than I’ve ever been so far. Please don’t be annoyed. The thing is, I never quite worked out in my head how they get Miranda away from Glory and I just can’t be bothered now. Can I just say that the scoobies came up with an excellent plan and rescued her, full stop. The next scene takes place in the hospital. The baby had been growing very quickly during the short time she was with Glory—the monks/priests/minions were chanting and feeding her things to make the baby grow. But within hours of being away from them, the baby’s heart stopped and a ‘mini’ labor was induced by the doctors at the hospital and so Miranda had to give birth to the stillborn. She is now recovering. The doctors have suggested that she stay the night.
Miranda is sitting up in bed, looking off to the side. She has an IV in her arm. Buffy steps quietly into the room.
Buffy: “Hi. Mind a bit of company? [Miranda doesn’t even look over/up] The doctor thinks you should stay until the morning. We thought we’d make a night of it—until they kick us out. Willow brought a movie you can watch on her laptop. [still, no reaction from Miranda] Anya and Xander are at the house with Spike. Bizarrely, Anya’s being quite the little nurse. He’s not awake most of the time and he still can’t talk. But he’ll be Ok—not so easy to kill, those vamps; else my job would be a lot easier. [pause. Awkward silence. Five minutes or so pass.]
Miranda: [in a completely normal voice] “Could you send Angel in for a minute?”
Buffy: [happy to have some glimmer of animation from Miranda] “Yeah, sure. I’ll just...get him.”
Buffy walks out of the room. Willow, Tara and Angel are waiting outside.
Willow: “How is she?”
Buffy: “She’s still not really talking. It’s eerie. Looks a bit pale, but I guess that’s normal.”
Tara: “She hasn’t said a word since we got her away from Glory—do you think she did something to her?”
Buffy: “I got a whole sentence out of her—she asked to see you, Angel. A lot’s happened in the past few days. I think she just needs some time.”
Angel: [a bit surprised and slightly awkward] “Oh, uh. I guess I’ll...”
Buffy: “Just go.”
Angel: “Right.”
He opens the door and steps in. He stands there in silence for a moment, waiting for her to speak. Miranda has yet to acknowledge his presence. A minute or two passes.
Miranda: “I wanted to say thank you. And...” [her voice trails off and she doesn’t finish]
Angel: “No need. You’ve been through a lot. You should rest.”
Miranda: “You’ve lived a long time as a vampire—seen a lot of things. Evil things. You might know. [she is starting to look a bit agitated; her hands are shaking just a bit] I wanted to ask you...[her breathing is a bit unsteady. She stops herself and takes a breath] She couldn’t do it, could she?”
Angel: “Do what?”
Miranda: “Take his soul. Cal’s. He wished it, but he didn’t actually get to touch me. Not really.” [There is a touch of desperation in her voice.]
Angel: “You’re still thinking about that? He wasn’t real—she was just trying to play you.”
Miranda: [she looks directly at Angel for the first time since they’ve started talking] “His hand was warm—against the glass. I felt it. I could see his breath. [pleading] There are rules—some honor, even in this, isn’t there?”
Angel: [honestly] “Sometimes. It depends.”
Miranda: “I couldn’t live with that. He worked so hard to help me—to save me from myself—he was everything good. If loving me damns him, I..."
Angel: “I doubt she has the power. Try not to think about it now.”
Miranda: [She nods, but is obviously still upset] “Can you help me with this?” [She is fiddling with her IV.]
Angel: “What are you doing?”
Miranda: “It’s time for me to go now. Hate hospitals.”
Angel does as she says and she disconnects the needle in her arm. It becomes obvious that she’d fiddled with her IV before and instead of getting the fluids that the doctor meant to give her, she has reversed things and is filling a bag of blood. In response to Angel’s confused expression.]
Miranda: “It’s for Spike. Snuck another one under the bed.” [She reaches under, grabs it and then slips on her clothes. She’s a bit wobbly on her feet. She’s about to open the door but hesitates for a moment. Without looking at him, she says, warmly: “You’d be a good father, Angel.”
She walks out of the room and makes for the exit. Everyone is shocked that she’s up and about. She asks to get ride back to the house and they leave.
**
She asks to be dropped off, despite offers of help/company. She walks in the door and finds Xander watching tv/sleeping in the livingroom and Anya in the kitchen in an apron with what looks like bloodstains on the front.
Anya: [very chipper] “Oh, you’re back. Yay. [looking her over] I thought you’d look much worse.”
Miranda: [very tired] “Hello, Anya.”
Anya: “I’ve been taking care of Spike—defrosting the blood, feeding him, cleaning up the mess—he can’t really drink very well yet. I was going to give him a bath—he’s covered in blood—but Xander thought that was going to far. I mean, I wouldn’t want you giving Xander a sponge bath if you were taking care of him and he was covered in blood, now would I? But I did wash his chest off a bit—don’t tell Xander.” [She gives Miranda an approving eye flick.]
Miranda: “Thank you, Anya. I do appreciate it. You can go now.”
Anya: “You’d do the same for me, right? I mean, you’d take care of Xander for me if he was hurt.”
Miranda: “Yes, of course.”
Anya: “But no sponge baths.”
Miranda: “We’re clear on that point.”
Anya: “Good. Ok, we’re off.”
Anya goes to collect Xander and they leave. Miranda walks upstairs and turns on the water in the bath and waits for it to fill and then shuts it off. She comes back down to the kitchen and pours the fresh blood into a cup. She goes downstairs to the bedroom where she finds Spike lying on top of the covers on the bed. He looks like death—the duct tape is still around his neck and his clothes are stiff with dried blood. She climbs on to the bed and slides up next to him. She strokes his face with her hand and kisses him on the cheek. He opens his eyes, but can’t turn his head to look at her. She lifts her head to look him in the eye]
Miranda: “Everything’s going to be okay, now love. I’ll take care of you. It’ll be all right. I just need to rest a minute.”
There are tears in her eyes as she lets her face rest back on the pillow next to his head, her nose practically touching his ear. She continues to lightly stroke his face with her hand as she closes her eyes and drifts off to sleep.
Scene 10
Sometime later, Miranda’s house. In the bedroom. Spike is on the bed, now clean with loose fitting pants and no shirt. His eyes are closed and the duct tape is still around his neck. We see Miranda come and go, tending to things—we can see that her face is wet with tears (she occasionally makes an attempt to brush the tears aside). Right in the middle of doing something, she stops dead and stares into space—the tears now flowing more freely. Suddenly, Spike’s hand reaches out to touch her arm. Noticing that he is now awake, she quickly brushes the tears away and taking a deep breath, she turns to him and tries to smile.
Miranda: “ah, you’re awake. Let me just, uh, run upstairs and heat up some blood for you.” [She starts to go, but he weakly grabs hold of her arm. She turns to look at him—he has a look of extreme concern on his face. Seeing it makes the tears flow again—she turns away slightly and sits on the edge of the bed next to him. He moves his hand up to her face and feels the dampness of her cheek. He gives her a slightly confused look.] “It’s the funniest thing—I just can’t make them stop. [embarrassed] It’s like a bloody faucet or something.”
He gives her shoulder a tiny squeeze—Still, his frown shows his concern/confusion. Seeing his expression out of the corner of her eye, she takes a breath.
Miranda: “There’s no baby. There was. [pause] Please, just let me get you some blood.”
She gets up from the bed and makes her way upstairs. She pulls a bag from the freezer and pauses to take a brief count—there aren’t many left. After she heats it, she goes back downstairs. Spike looks sad/disheartened—she tries not to look at him. After propping his head up with some pillows, she feeds him—he’s too weak to hold the cup. After a minute, she thinks of something and says..
Miranda: “Are you in pain?” [He responds with a subtle shrug, as if to say it’s no big deal.] “No need to be macho, love, I’ve brought something from the hospital.” [At this she walks into the bathroom and comes back with a vial of liquid, a needle and a rubber tourniquet. But when she sits on the bed next to Spike, she frowns.] “Guess you can’t really do this the same way with a vampire.” [She thinks for a minute. She remembers what he’s told her about how he can feel her pleasure when he drinks from her during or right after an (her) orgasm—it’s such a wonderfully intense feeling that he rarely bites her at any other time now. So that will work, surely. And who knows...maybe it will stop the tears for a bit. She gets up and fishes for a sharp knife. Afterwards, she positions herself in the same way as at the factory when Angel helped her feed Spike. She uses the tourniquet, finds her vein and injects the fluid—you can see the instant reaction (like someone taking heroin). She loosens the rubber thing on her arm and rather dreamily, slits across the same vein and holds it to Spike’s mouth. Her eyes flutter and soon, you can see his reaction as well. Once he’s had enough, he puts his hand over the wound to help stop the bleeding—she’s too out of it to re-tighten the tourniquet and her head falls back. In a moment, they’re both out.]
**
Things go on like this for a while. Miranda is terribly depressed, but throws herself into caring for Spike as best she can. He gets a bit better—the tape comes off and the wound is partially healed over. He can sit up and speak in a whisper. Soon, though, they run out of blood. Miranda is too out-of-it to leave the house—she’s continued to take the painkillers to stop the tears. Her depression is hindering her healing process (not to mention that she isn’t eating much) and so she can’t produce much blood for Spike. (note: the image I have is from Sid and Nancy (1986) when they are in the ‘final’ hotel room where they lay around in bed, doing heroin). We hear her occasionally talking on the phone—to whom we don’t know. They don’t answer the door. As time passes (weeks), Giles and the others begin to worry. They even try to break in once to check on them, but Miranda has rigged the protection spell to keep everyone out. At some point, they run out of painkillers and Miranda decides to go out.
At the Magic Shop. Giles is leaning on the counter, reading something. We hear the bell ring on the door. In walks Miranda. She looks awful—pale, thin, sad. But, she’s put on some nice clothes and tried to make herself up a bit so as not to look too deathly.
Giles: [upon seeing her, he has a sudden look of relief] “Miranda. We’ve been so worried.”
He walks towards her. They greet with a one-cheek kiss. He takes her hand and leads her to a chair. Without the drugs to calm her, the tears start to flow again. She visibly tries to hold them back.
Miranda: “I...I ‘d like to ask for your help.”
Giles: “Yes, of course. Anything.”
Miranda: “He’s not getting any better. It’s been a month and he’s basically the same. I’ve tried my best, but I...I don’t have anything left.” [At this, she pokes her arms through her coat, revealing the scars.]
Giles: [he is initially shocked by the scars] “Oh, I hadn’t realized...”
Miranda: “Do you know of anything that could help heal a vampire? A spell, a ritual? I know it’s not your usual practice to help them, but I though you might know.” [her voice trails off]
Giles: [concerned frown] “I’m happy to research it, but it’s rather unlikely considering my sources. There was something we came across a few years back, but it required the blood of the vampire’s sire and, uh, well, Spike’s sire was...”
Miranda: “Killed by me.”
Giles: “Maybe just a steady inflow of blood would do. I can go with you to the butchers in town—we should be able to get a decent stockpile of cow’s blood.”
A pause as she waits patiently for another suggestion. When it doesn’t come, she looks up and with a touch of desperation in her voice, says...
Miranda: “So that’s it, then? The extent of your advice—cow’s blood.”
Giles: “I don’t know what else to suggest. He’s a vampire. As you mention, helping is not exactly a Watcher’s forte.”
Miranda: “I see. [Pause for a moment; then she gets up to go.] I know where the butcher shops are. Thanks for your time.” [Overly polite. She’s frustrated and has shut herself back off.]
Giles: “Don’t go. Anya will be back in a moment and I can go with you—maybe get a bite to eat. You look exhausted.”
But by the time he’s said this, she is out the door. He looks concerned.
**
More time passes. Things continue as before. Miranda has bought some more painkillers. Spike seems to have plateaued in his recovery. In a lucid moment, Spike takes the vial of painkiller and smashes it against the wall.
Spike: “We can’t go on like this, love. I want to help you, but I can’t. No more drugs...no more blood. You need to take care of yourself.”
Miranda: “I know. [pause] I want you to help me. I want things to go back...”
Spike: “I’m not getting any better. [conspiratorially; a whisper] We need to DO something.”
She looks at him for a moment; then down as she clenches her teeth slightly and takes a breath. They've talked about this before. She's been over it and over it in her mind—perhaps it's the drugs or the depression, but she has convinced herself that it's the only way to restore him.
Miranda: [Pained, but resigned voice.] “How many?”
Spike: [Seeing that she understands; shrugging] “Don’t know. Three, maybe four. [pause] The dregs, love.”
Miranda: [nodding; very serious] “I’ll get you three. Three and then we never speak of it again. [Spike nods in agreement] How long? How long can they be...[beat] dead, before...”
Spike: “A few minutes. At most.”
Miranda: [lighting a cigarette] “I’ll bring them here, then. [pause] The dregs.”
She gets up and heads to the bathroom to take a shower. When she comes out, she’s dried her hair and put make-up on. She starts putting on nightclub clothes. As she’s about to head upstairs...
Spike: “Miranda, wait. Forget it. Maybe try the hospital—blood bank or something. Maybe...”
Miranda interrupts him.
Miranda: [in a casual voice] “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’m going out for drink is all.”
He doesn’t say anything, but instead just gives a small nod. She leaves the bedroom. Once upstairs, she picks up the phone and dials.
Miranda: [putting on an American accent] “I’m a friend of Eddie’s from New York. Mir—he’ll know me as Randa. I need to call in a favor. Have someone call me in an hour at XXX XXX XXXX.”
She hangs up, grabs her cell phone and leaves the house. Sometime in the middle of the night, she returns home and gets into bed, saying nothing.