Chapter Text
NOTES:
3 Season Buffy: After the Zeppo episode, rest is being made up.
Supernatural: after season 1, only John does not die. Not following completely with demon’s plans.
Time frames shifted.
Xander: 16
Sam: 22
Dean: 26
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A foggy sort of pain greeted Xander when he woke. Usually he would snap right into consciousness on any normal day, but today he couldn’t get his mind to function properly. His limbs felt heavy and his eyes refused to budge from their locked position. For a moment he panicked thinking he’d died, however the steady rhythm of beep, beep, beep echoing in the tiny room suggested otherwise.
The strong scent of anesthetic wafted into his nose giving him further clues as to his location. Once more he tried to open his eyes, this time managing just the tiniest of slivers only to close them tight against the bright light. He attempted to bring his hands up in the hopes of rubbing his abused eyelids only to have them pinned by various wires and tubes.
The clues clicked together all pointing to the fact that he had somehow become a guest of Sunnydale General once again. The question was how. He hadn’t had to come here for himself since junior year after…
His mind finally reached the present, the memories of the past weeks catching up to him. The girls tossing him to the side despite his efforts to help. His own ‘heroic’ night of stopping zombies and saving the school that no one else knew about. The loss of his virginity and subsequent humiliation at Faith’s hands. The same hands had worked hard to strangle the life out of him not to long after, his sore throat a testament to that. Further humiliation in having Deadboy save him. The girls continued campaign to leave him on the sidelines and exclude him from their lives. His lonely trek home only to find Tony beating his mother…
That’s right. He’d walked into the Harris home to find Tony beating his mom senseless. Xander had stepped between them trying to stop the man only to end up on the receiving end. Not exactly an uncommon event, even if he had grown these past few years. But something was different. Tony was stronger than before, faster.
His eyes. His eyes had been solid black. A clear sign of possession from what he’d read and to some extent experienced. Yet he knew Tony had also been in partial control. The man had wanted the demon’s power; he had wanted to hurt his wife and stepson. He had wanted to kill them. Only Xander had reacted on instinct once he realized his life truly hung in the balance and he’d drawn the blade he had started carrying after Faith’s attack days prior. The blade made of sliver and thrice blessed, that he’d rammed into Tony’s rib cage right into his heart killing man and demon.
After that he had vague memories of his mother’s screams and the Hyena and soldier whispering words of comfort as darkness took him.
Slowly he pushed himself into awareness. It took a bit to get his eyes to stay open but he managed. Moving his hand he came against one of the controllers he’d become quite familiar with over the course of his life. Pushing the right button he felt the bed shift under him until it positioned him upright.
With an apathetic eye he scanned his form. His right leg sported a cast, matching nicely with the one on his left hand and wrist. What skin he could see looked quite colorful given the splashes of blues and purples. Considering the more sickly yellows and greens were absent he hadn’t been here too long. His right hand had an IV hooked up, no doubt pumping him full of drugs. He considered removing it, but didn’t quite feel up to a lecture he knew would follow such a move.
He couldn’t see under the gown but what little movement he could perform suggested cracked and broken ribs along with abrasions that burned across his back. Carefully reaching up his right hand he felt along his head noting a few bandages, likely due to lacerations. Though he could see out of both eyes, his left had puffed up quite a bit to suggest swelling.
Yup, he had certainly received a ‘Tony Harris Special’. He’d almost forgotten what they were like, since the old man had eased up after middle school. Though the demon had certainly added to the man’s punch.
The nurses obviously hadn’t forgotten, since they’d brought him to his old room. His Star Wars poster still displayed itself proudly on one wall. They had even put on his old Batman sheets. How sad was that?
Not too surprisingly the room was devoid of any flowers, balloons or other shows of moral support. The only real difference was the distinct lack of Willow draped in the lone chair by the bed. Of course after the past few weeks he doubted his ‘best friend’ would bother showing up.
“Xander! You’re awake!” The pleased and extremely relieved voice of Nurse Mitchell broke through his dark thoughts drawing his attention. She was a nice woman, in her early forties who had treated him more often than not during his ‘visits’. “We were really worried about you. Doc Hawkins didn’t think you’d wake up so soon.” She moved over to him fussing with the instruments and making sure he was comfortable. “Do you remember what happened?”
He tried to speak but the soreness of his throat dissuaded such actions, so he nodded.
Nurse Mitchell smiled sympathetically, bringing a cup of water up for him to sip on. “Slowly, you know the drill.”
Once he had his fill she put it down on the tray nearby. “Don’t talk too much, you’re throat is bruised pretty badly. I’m just going to check your vitals then I’m going to get the doc in here to speak to you ok?”
He nodded before a thought occurred to him. “M…mom?”
A look flashed over her face holding a horde of emotions ranging from anger to sympathy, the latter directed at him. “She’s alive. She was released yesterday. You’ve been in here for four days.” She advised upon seeing the question in his eyes. For a moment it didn’t look like she wanted to continue but she pushed on. “Xander, she… she signed over all parental rights for you. She said she couldn’t handle being responsible for anyone else. I…”
Mitchell held his right hand in support trying to find the words but unable to. Her eyes teared up at the unsurprised acceptance that shone in his brown eyes. How she wanted to hurt Jessica Harris for what she had done to her son. She may not have beaten him like Tony, but to ignore him and then throw him away? No one deserved that.
“We’ve called your biological father though. He should be here in a few days.” The statement did get a fraction of surprise before the teen blanked his features once more. She watched him sadly unsure what to say. Seeing Xander so quiet and resigned seemed unnatural. The boy had always had a smile for them, but he had obviously reached the end of his rope.
“Is there anyone you want me to call? Like Willow?” She had wondered where the girl was. Usually you didn’t see one without the other. Last year when the red head had come in due to a head injury Xander had stayed by her side almost non-stop.
Xander considered her offer but quickly shook his head no. He didn’t want to see the girls anytime soon and if Willow hadn’t shown up after he’d missed school for so many days then she obviously didn’t care what happened to him.
Nurse Mitchell sighed again. “Ok sweetie. If you need anything you know how to page me ok? I’ll go get Doc Hawkins for you.”
The doctor’s visit proved informative and depressing. Xander had guessed most of his injuries but not the seriousness of them. His wrist had needed surgery to repair the fractures, as had a few of the rib breaks considering they had pushed on his lungs. Luckily they hadn’t punctured anything but it had been close. Some of his internal organs had received bruises, which according to the doctor was not of the good, and he’d had minimal internal bleeding. Long story short he would have a long road to recovery ahead of him.
The only real good news he’d learned was his mom had stood up for him to the cops and explained his killing Tony had been a result of self-defense. The ever-incompetent cops of Sunnydale had just gone with that and let the matter drop. After all this hadn’t been the first time they’d responded to the Harris home due to the late man’s rage issues.
When the man left he’d given Xander another dose of painkillers despite his protests and promised to return later to check on him. The teen tried to fight the drugs but couldn’t as they dragged him into sleep once more.