Angel arrived back at his house a few hours later. He had to carry Buffy into the house. Hs housekeeper had made the spare room up, next to his.

He found Lorne and his wife waiting for him.

“Lorne, Kathy. Good to see you.” Said Angel placing Buffy on the bed.

“You too. So, this is the patient?”

“Yep, Buffy Ann Summers.”

Lorne opened his medical bag and first gave her a check up, checking breathing, blood pressure, pulse etc etc.

“Well physically she’s fine. A little weak from the muscle atrophy but other than that fine.”

“So it’s defiantly psychological?” asked Kathy.

“Well it’s too early to say that.” Said Lorne. “I want a full blood work up and complete tests before I diagnose anything. Oh, and Kathy if you could find me a list of her medication.”

“Sure.”

“The files in the car.” Said Angel. “I’ll help you get it.”


“Hmm.” Said Lorne as he reviewed the notes.

“What?” asked Angel.

“She’s on a lot of drugs here.”

“Too many?”

“More that I would prescribe.” He closed the file. “I’m going to take her off the meds for a while. She’s due for her next dose now so we’ll get them out of her system.”

“She’ll be OK?”

“Probably. What I suggest if the three of us stay here for the weekend. If anything happens we have a psychologist, a nurse and two big burly men. I think we can handle it. And the hospital gave us a supply of her meds so if she needs to go back on them she can.” He checked his watch. “Kathy should be back soon. The clinic doesn’t usually do this but $100 extra we’ll have the results by tomorrow, weekend be damned.” Lorne smiled reasuringly. “Don’t worry, we’ll take good care of her.”


Angels next job was to contact Buffy’s friends, namely Willow and Xander. Once he had filled them in on the situation he decided to dress Buffy. Unfortunately all he had were his clothes but they would have to do and they were much better than the hospital gown she had been wearing. Dressed in his sweat pants and a shirt he carried Buffy out to the deck in the garden and sat her in a chair. Lorne and Kathy joined them and they each took a section of the medical file to go through. It was huge.

Not wanting to talk out loud about some things Angel wrote on a slip of paper and passed it to Lorne.

There are old scars on Buffy’s back. Faint but they look like lacerations of some kind.

Lorne read the note and past his won back.

What from?

Angel shrugged and wrote another note.

Noticed them when I changed her, they wernt there when I left LA.

Lorne pointed to the file as if to say the answers could be in there. Angel nodded and began reading his section.

It was dry to say the least but Angel was used to that. Law was dry too but he had a talent for information like that.

Lorne passed Angel a sheet of paper from the file, Angel read it. It was in Doctor short hand but he was used to that. It read:-

Patient presents with delusions of vampires and demons. Suspect trauma of some kind but patient is uncooperative in the extreme.

Medical exam found recently healed lacerations to the back. Patient claims they were done during a fight with a vampire.

Angel handed the sheet back, he needed to make a phone call.

“I’m going in, anyone want anything?” he asked, as he looked to Buffy he saw her looking at him. Her expression was blank but her eyes were clearly focused on him.

“Lorne.”

Lorne looked up. “Someone’s up. Hey there Buffy. I’m Lorne Doran.”

Nothing from Buffy. Angel moved to the side slightly, her eyes followed him.

Knowing it wasn’t a fluke he went over to her and kneeled beside her.

“Hey there.” He said smiling and taking her hand. “How are you?” No reaction. “Stupid question. Do you want something? Squeeze my hand if you do.”

Buffy squeezed. Angel beamed at her. “Good. Squeeze when I get to what you want. OK? Water? Juice? Coke,” Buffy squeezed lightly. “Like a coke but not a coke?” another light squeeze. “Diet coke?” Buffy squeezed harder.

Angel kissed her forehead lightly and said, “You go it. I’ll be right back.”

Buffy released his hand to looked back out to the garden.

Angel made his phone call to Mel, his assistant, quickly as he prepared Buffy’s drink.

“Mel, I need you to go to work. I need every bit of information there is on a Buffy Ann Summers. She was a student at Hemory high. I want police records, hospital records, anything on her at all. And also on any classmates she had contact with between the ages of 13 and 15. Concentrate on the people she had the most contact with first, boyfriends and such, then work out from there.”

“Is this for a case?”

“Maybe. Just do it, it’s important.”

“Got it.”

They hung up and Angel took the drink out to Buffy. He sat beside her and placed the glass to her lips. Her eyes focused on his again as he gently tilted the glass up. She drank slowly.

A drop of the coke dribbled down her chin, she made no move to wipe it away. Angel used his sleeve to wipe it away.

Angel didn’t want to break the small contact she had made with him. He scooped her up, an easy task since she was severely underweight, and sat down with her on his lap. She leaned into him and Angel continued reading the file over her, every now and again he would kiss the top of her head or stroke her hair.

Lorne watched them from time to time. Angel had told him Buffy was an old friend but there was more to it than that. A lot more.