Daddy Dearest
Max floated in a dream, not unlike her first experience with person to person transfusion. The first time, it had been to save Logan’s life. She’d dreamed that they’d been dancing together. This time, there were disjointed memories of the man before her from her childhood. Suddenly, pain flashed momentarily in her arm and as she came to, the blurry vision of a nurse came into being.
"Security!" the woman yelled through the open door. She’d already yanked the offending needle from her patient’s arm and Max’s and now all her attention was on protecting him further. "Security!" she yelled again, a wary eye on the pale woman before her.
"No," Max protested weakly. "I didn’t hurt him," she mumbled. The room exploded into activity. The doctor raced in, two security guards hot on his heels. The doctor turned his attention to his patient, barely sparing Max a glance.
"Get her out of here!" he commanded them. They began to drag the stumbling woman out of the room. The others, who had been waiting for news had followed the doctor and were stunned to see Max. Angel and Spike recognized her condition immediately. They’d seen it enough times in their victims. She was half-dead from her blood being drained. She was protesting softly. Buffy, on the other hand, was furious.
"What did you do?" she screamed at the fainting woman. Max’s eyes fluttered back in her head and she finally succumbed. Angel pushed the guards’ aside and swept her up in his arms.
"Is there somewhere I can take her?" he asked the stupefied guards. They glanced at one another, not sure of the protocol to follow. One finally motioned to an empty room and Angel deposited her on the bed. Before he could say anything, on of the guards had handcuffed her to the bed to make sure she didn’t escape. Cordelia had followed them.
"Is she okay? Angel what’s wrong?" she demanded, her voice barely holding a shrill edge in her panic. Angel motioned her away from the guards standing beside the bed.
"I think she transfused her blood to Giles," he murmured. Cordy’s eyes were confused for a moment. "Can you go get her some juice. She needs to replenish her blood. That’s the quickest way."
"Of course," Cordy sighed. She hurried from the room. Angel turned back, determined to keep an eye on this enigma.
Back in Giles room, the doctor and nurse were frantically monitoring their patient. "His blood pressure is normalizing," she commented. "Vitals are stable. He’s breathing better and his color is up." The doctor nodded his own assessment.
"I guess we won’t be needing that blood right this second," he mused, wondering what on earth had possessed the dark haired woman to pull this stunt. He bent down to retrieve the tube that still had some of her blood in it. "Take this down to the lab and have them run a full panel on it. Check for everything. We need to make sure she hasn’t contaminated the patient." The nurse nodded and carefully emptied the blood into a vial and made some notations on an order. The doctor signed it quickly and she exited the room. He turned when he heard the soft voices outside the room.
"Is he okay?" Buffy asked. The doctor turned and ushered them away from the room.
"Mr. Giles is stable at the moment," he told her. "The blood she gave him helped. But unfortunately, we don’t know if it was the right type, if there were any contaminants or disease. We need to keep Mr. Giles under supervision as he may have an adverse reaction. But at the moment, he’s not in danger. I think it best if you all return to the waiting room. I’ll update you as soon as we know more." Buffy nodded and turned to herd her friends back to their previous room. She glanced in the room where Angel and Max had disappeared. The doctor had also stopped there. She followed him in. She strode straight to the bed, kicking it in her anger to make the woman wake up.
Slowly, her eyelids drifted upward. She could clearly see the anger and confusion in the eyes of the people before her. "If you’ve hurt Giles anymore, I will kill you," Buffy vowed vehemently. Angel threw her a disgusted look.
"Young lady, do you realize what your rash action has done?" the doctor questioned sternly.
"I’m a universal donor," she murmured, knowing that even that news wouldn’t allay their fears.
"Be that as it may," the doctor growled, "there are proper channels and procedures to go through. Had you told me that, I would have allowed you to give a sample that we would have screened. Now, however, any toxins in your system, are now in Mr. Giles."
"Hey, give her a break," Angel interrupted. He was angry, with them all, irrationally angry. Was he the only one that saw that Max had almost killed herself to help a stranger? "She was trying to help."
"This doesn’t concern you Angel," Buffy snapped at him. Angel grit his teeth, stopping any response he may have given. He knew that Buffy was scared for her friend, but that didn’t give her the right to attack one of his. Cordy reappeared then, a large cup of juice in her hand. Ignoring the others, she made her way to Max’s side.
"Hey pal, drink up," she whispered, handing her the cup. Angel moved to her side to help her sit up and steady the cup as she shakily brought it to her lips. She drank deeply, as much as she could, then let Angel take the cup from her. She glanced down at her left wrist, still manacled to the bed. Angel noticed and turned to the doctor.
"Could you have them uncuff her?" he demanded. "She’s not a criminal."
"That remains to be seen," one of the guards murmured under his breath. Angel glared at him, having heard. The guard blushed under the intimidating stare coming his way, then looked to the doctor. The man nodded his head resignedly and the guard fumbled for his key. He unlocked Max in seconds, and with a sigh of relief, left the room to station himself outside.
Max rubbed her wrist, even though the cuffs hadn’t been tight. It just brought back very painful memories of the last time she’d been chained up in a hospital. Her hand moved next to her chest as she unconsciously rubbed at her scar. "Can I go now?" she asked in general.
"I think not," the doctor scoffed. "We still need to determine that you didn’t harm Mr. Giles." Max nodded and reclined on the bed. Angel handed her the rest of her juice, never realizing that she was already making plans to escape. The doctor turned and Buffy followed him out the door, the rigid set to her shoulders letting them all know exactly how she felt. Angel turned back to see Max sipping the juice, relieved to note that already her hand was steadier.
"So what were you thinking?" he asked gently. Max glanced away from him. He reached out and carefully grasped her chin, turning her face to him. "Max?"
"He was hurting," she whispered, unable to explain her actions fully. She still wasn’t sure that she could trust them with more intimate knowledge of herself. They were used to super strength and superior fighting skills. But how would they react to the rest of her freakish abilities? In her tired and weakened state, all she could focus on was that her odd life was causing problems again. How could she explain the blood that ran through her that had regenerative factors? Something deep inside her was pressing at her, screaming at her to run. It didn’t matter that she’d already shared so much of her life with them. Things were getting out of control again. "I thought it would help. Especially since they seem to keep losing whatever blood they do have around here."
"I can understand that," Angel conceded. "But why didn’t you do like the doctor said?" There was no answer. He made the simple leap in logic. "There’s something about your blood that you didn’t want the doctor’s to notice, isn’t there?" He was sure he was right. When she’d been hurt the evening before, he could smell it. And to him, it was richer than average blood. In a way, it reminded him of Slayer blood. He knew how exotic and fulfilling it was to the Vampire. All the extras of the Slayer package were included in the blood. And he’d drunk from Buffy. Not by choice, but because his survival depended on it. But there was something elusive that he’d smelled in Max’s blood. "Isn’t there?" he repeated as she jerked her chin from his grasp.
"Yes," she whispered softly. Cordelia stepped forward, to Max’s other side.
"It won’t hurt him, will it?" she asked, smiling at her friend confidently.
"No, it won’t," Max assured her, unable to look at Angel. She wanted to reassure them and slipped a little. "It will just help him heal a little faster." Neither one said anything for a moment, before Angel leaned over and kissed the top of her head. She turned to him, confused.
"Thank you Max," he spoke sincerely. "Giles means a lot to us." He wondered why she couldn’t tell him straight out, then decided it must be the result of the transfusion. He resolved to talk to her again once she was feeling a little more herself.
"And so do you," Cordelia stated emphatically. She hugged her tired roommate and took the cup from her. "I’ll get you a refill, okay?" Max nodded and Cordy strode from the room after giving Angel a smile as well. He watched her walk away, then turned back to Max, catching her trying to smother a broad yawn.
"You should get some rest," he smirked. "I’ll go." He moved away with one glance at the woman reclining on the bed. Her eyes were already shut, her chest rising and falling in a slow, steady pattern. He slipped out the door, ignoring the guard and made his way back to the waiting room. He never realized that the moment he was gone, that Max’s eyes popped open and she slipped from the bed and was out the window, onto the fire escape before he ever made it back to his friends.
A scant hour later, the doctor was again conferring with the group of apprehensive friends when the nurse looked into the waiting room. "Doctor, he’s waking up." The doctor smiled reassuringly at the group and strode from the room. He entered his patient’s room, glad to see that the man’s eyes were bright, clear and aware.
"Mr. Giles," he exclaimed. "Good to see you awake. I’m Dr. Armstrong. You were brought into the ER this afternoon with some injuries sustained in a car accident. We had to operate, but you’re going to be okay. Now, how do you say we get that pesky tube out of your throat?" Giles looked relieved when he said that and tried to nod. Pulling on some latex gloves, he gave instructions to Giles to facilitate the procedure. Within moments, the tube was disposed of as Giles coughed softly. The nurse checked him over and things looked good.
"Remember, whisper only," she lectured Giles. He nodded again.
"What happened?" his voice was raspy, but that was to be expected.
"Well, Mr. Giles, the cab you were riding in, was sideswiped by a Mack truck that swerved to avoid another accident. Your vehicle rolled and collided with the barrier on the freeway." Giles nodded, various memories seeping back into his consciousness. "You sustained major injuries. You liver was damaged, as well as your spleen and a lung. We’ve managed to repair them all. You’ll be in the hospital for a while as we monitor your condition." He deliberately left out the news of the blood problem. He would only bring it up if there seemed to be a problem.
"The others?" Giles whispered.
"None of the others involved in the accidents received major injuries," the doctor smiled as Giles nodded in relief. "Everyone was doing okay." He paused. "The hospital contacted Miss Summers."
"Buffy’s here?" Giles rasped in surprise.
"Yes," the doctor confirmed. "Her and a number of friends. I can let you see her for a moment, but no one else. You need your rest." Giles tried to smile, but he was still in some pain. "I’ll go let her know." He left the room as the nurse prepared to give the patient some pain medication, explaining what it was and ensuring that he had no allergies to worry about.
Dr. Armstrong strode into the hall and found Buffy there. "If you’d like to see him, you may. But please, no more than five minutes." Buffy nodded and hurried into the room. She waited as the nurse finished administering the shot and watched her leave.
"Good God Giles," she laughed, the release of endorphins in her system suddenly making her shake. "You scared us. I’m so glad you’re okay."
"Me too, Buffy," he grinned. "Me too."
"Did the doctor tell you everything?" Buffy asked suspiciously. Giles nodded. "About the blood too?" His startled look let her know that the doctor was trying to save his butt from a major lawsuit, "It looks like the hospital has been suffering from vamps ripping off their blood supply. They didn’t have enough for you and had called for some from another hospital. But when Angel arrived, the vamps had already gotten ahold of it. So Max snuck in here and transfused her own blood-!"
"She did that for me?" Giles was shocked that the young woman would selflessly help a stranger like that.
"Don’t make it sound like she cut off her right arm for you Giles," Buffy scoffed. Her features softened sadly, not liking what she had to tell him. "Max said she’s a universal donor, but the doctor’s are worried about contaminants."
"Well, I feel quite fine, actually," Giles grinned up at her. Buffy arched an eyebrow at him, then at the IV stand beside the bed.
"I think that’s the morphine talking," she quipped. She smiled at his goofy expression, a tender wave of love rushing over her for this man that was more father to her than her real one. "Well, the doctor said only a couple minutes. So I better go. We’ll be back first thing in the morning." Giles nodded and let his eyes shut as Buffy left the room.
Two days later, the doctor approached Mr. Giles’ room, perplexed by all the things that had happened the last few days. In his hand, he finally held some of the answers. The girl had disappeared from the hospital and from conversations snippets he’d overheard, hadn’t been seen since by her friends. A source of worries, consternation and anger for them and him. He knocked on the patient’s door and was called in. It was visiting time and Buffy, her young man, Spike, Willow, the redhead and the tall man; Angel was there, as well as Cordelia. He nodded to each of them, then addressed himself to the patient.
"Good evening Giles," he spoke warmly. "How are you tonight?"
"Wonderful," Giles spoke dryly. "How are you?"
"Well, now that I have some answers, I feel a little better," Dr. Armstrong sighed. He pulled a stool closer to his patient. He knew it was useless to ask the others to leave. They were the closest thing that Giles had to a family. "I just don’t understand why no one saw fit to inform me that Max was your daughter."
"My what?!" Giles demanded, shocked at the doctor’s words. The doctor saw this and the surprise on everyone else’s faces.
"You didn’t know?" Giles shook his head.
"I don’t have children," he denied.
"Well," Dr. Armstrong scratched his head philosophically. "I guess that would be why you didn’t tell me."
"Are you sure?" Giles demanded, his head whirling.
"We checked the DNA against yours," he assured the man. "That’s why the tests took a while. You’re a 97 percent match. Of course, there were other amazing factors."
"Wait a minute," Angel spoke up. "How did you get a sample of Max’s blood?"
"Oh, there was some left in the tube from their transfusion," he informed them. Angel grit his teeth. He had been worried about Max, but he and Cordelia had agreed to keep her secrets from the others. Now this damn doctor had loused that up through his meddling. "We were all quite confused because you were healing so rapidly Giles. But then again, the answer was in Max’s blood. We ran tests and she isn’t pregnant, so she must have just had a child." He glanced around, noting the puzzled looks on everyone’s’ faces. "Well, it’s the only answer that would explain the stem cells we found in her blood." He announced.
Suddenly Angel understood her reluctance to tell them. It was a big deal in the news over the past few years. Doctors and scientists debating the rights of whether to use blood from umbilical cords that contained stem cells from which children were created. If Max had been subject to experiments of that nature in her time, she would be subject to a lot of problems, possibly threats from people who wouldn’t or refused to understand. He exchanged glances with Cordy.
"She did have a baby," the brunette lied quickly. "But it didn’t survive. She miscarried recently." No one noticed her crossing her fingers behind her back. The doctor just nodded his head.
"It’s a very rare thing for a babies stem cells to cross to the mother," Dr. Armstrong mused. "In fact, I’ve never seen it happen. I’ll have to research this a little more. Very strange," he murmured as he stood. He quickly turned his attention to Giles. "Well sir, it seems due to that fact, we’ll be able to release you by the end of the week, if there are no more complications. Your blood work is good, no problems there. So, I guess that’s it. I’ll let you be then." He exited the room and there was a short stretch of silence, before Giles reacted.
"Bloody hell! I’m a father!"
Meeting Her
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