Interlude: Kendra and the Scoobies

(_)(_)(_)

November 5, 1997

The first thing Kendra became aware of was pain. Her back felt like it was on fire. The second thing that registered was: Oh. Wait. I'm alive. That's … good? Then, as the memory of why, exactly, she was in so much pain resurfaced, she amended that to 'good, but surprising as all hell.' Though she didn't put it in such uncouth terms.

She had only the haziest memories of Buffy arriving out of nowhere, but clearly having a second, doubtlessly fresher Slayer had clearly turned the tide of the fight. She'd have to thank Buffy later.

Given that she was in pain and fuzzy-headed, it took her a few minutes to realize that she was laying on her stomach. Yet her face wasn't mashed into pillows or the like. That was odd enough to get her to peel her eyes open, if only a crack.

She was staring at the floor. Why was she staring at the floor? And a mirror. Which, after another minute or two, she realized, was set up with other mirrors to allow her to see more than the shoes and ankles of people as they approached where she was.

Huh. Weird.

She must have made a noise or twitched or the like, because a man's voice (belatedly identified as Giles) broke through the quiet beeping of various bits of medical equipment.

"Kendra! You're awake. Good." Giles sounded deeply relieved. Which was odd. Nice, but odd. "I'll just fetch the doctors."

A few moments later, several more people came in the room. They introduced themselves and checked her over while asking a few questions. Then one of them moved something and tucked it into her left hand.

"This is the pump for your pain medication. I just pressed it to give you some, since you said you're in pain. It's fast-acting so you should start to notice a difference in a minute or two. It will probably make you sleepy and a little fuzzy-headed. I strongly urge you to click the button on that pump whenever the pain gets past a five. It's easier to keep pain under control if you don't let it get bad before re-medicating it. And you'll heal better and faster for not being in pain."

Once the doctors were gone, Giles spoke up again. "We are arranging to care for you 'at home'." He told her. "Your healing speed would be notable even on its own, but we've been helping it along. Once you can be transported, we plan to heal you entirely."

Kendra blinked in confusion. What? How? It made no sense. How could they help her healing along, never mind heal her entirely? Also, where was Mr. Zabuto? Unfortunately, at that point the pain medication caught up with her, and she slipped off to sleep.

(_)(_)(_)

Buffy poked her head in a couple minutes after Kendra dozed back off. "How is she?"

"She seemed fine." Giles said. "In a bit of pain when she woke, which is hardly surprising, but otherwise fine."

They'd gotten lucky, and Jon had caught Samantha Carter while she was in the mountain, rather than off-world somewhere. She'd hustled right over and patched Kendra up just enough to ensure she'd make it, which had been a chancy thing the day before. It'd be another couple days at least before she could be moved and they could heal her fully without drawing undue attention from the hospital staff.

Some things not even the usually oblivious Sunnydale residents could ignore. A girl going from near death to completely healed in a day or two was one of them.

They still hadn't told Zabuto. Zabuto still hadn't come looking for or asking about his charge, despite knowing she was to spy on them, making them the best place to start looking for her if he were so inclined. Jon had been muttering almost nonstop about booby traps and guns and what Giles presumed were plans to … encourage … Zabuto to go away if he did show up at some point. Not that Giles disagreed, but the Scoobies had made it very clear that they were keeping Kendra, and with that came rather a lot of protectiveness. Jon was just the most vocal as to his plans. Giles knew Buffy well enough by now to know she was plotting. Xander went without saying, with Jon on the warpath.

Giles was honestly expecting Jim and Blair to show up in order to act as backup. He would not put it past Xander to have called them in the wake of the other night's close call. Joyce was certainly up in arms. Giles almost hoped Zabuto did finally approach the Summers' house, just while he was there to enjoy the fireworks.

"Oh, that's good. Thank goodness. I'll tell the others. Maybe Jon will stop pacing and planning murder and mayhem." Buffy said.

"I fear that you shouldn't count on that." Giles said.

Buffy gave an amused snort. "Yeah, I kinda got that memo, but a girl can dream." And she slid back out of the hospital room.

The gang spent the rest of the day taking turns visiting Kendra, who was in and out of sleep and varyingly lucid thanks to the pain medication she was on. At least, Giles reflected, she'd been willing to take it. Some wouldn't have.

(_)(_)(_)

November 6, 1997

It took more than a little bit of obfuscation, tap dancing and outright lying, but they managed to get Kendra released the next day at noon. She was still in a lot of pain and had over three hundred stitches in her back – not to mention a missing spleen, among other damage – but the faster they got her out from under hospital observation, the faster she'd be back to normal.

Several very fluffy pillows behind her allowed Kendra to sit up in the wheelchair. The transfer to the car was a bit tricky, but they managed it, and then they were away.

Sam was waiting for them at the Summers' house.

Kendra frowned at her, looking more curious than upset. "Who are you?"

"My name's Samantha." Sam told her. "I'm a friend of Jon's." True, sort of. "For the record, I'm aware of what you are and what you do, so you don't have to try to talk around how you got injured or anything like that. I'm here to heal you up."

"This, I do not understand. You use a spell?" Kendra asked.

"No. Special technology. That's really all I can tell you." Sam said. "Other than I can promise you it won't hurt. Why don't you let Buffy help you lay down on the couch?"

Kendra eyed Sam warily, but allowed it. Apparently, the desire to not hurt was overriding her caution.

It didn't take Sam long to heal up Kendra's ravaged back. Less than halfway through, the pain evidently receeded enough for Kendra to let out a sigh of relief.

"There you go. That should do it. I'd go slow for the next couple days – your back might be a bit sensitive. You're also still minus your spleen, in case you're wondering. Healing wounds is one thing. Regenerating entire organs … not something we can do. Yet." Sam said.

Well, they could, but it involved a sarcophagus, and they didn't have one of those on hand.

"Thank you." Kendra didn't seem to be able to stop herself from patting herself down and – very gingerly at first – turning and stretching a bit. "Thank you very much."

"You're welcome." Sam said, then with more than a little amused asperity and resignation. "Try not to get yourself torn up so badly you need my help again, ok?"

"I cannot promise that, but I will do my best." Kendra said.

"That's really all any of us can do." Sam glanced over at the others. "Need me to stick around?"

"Need? No. Want, however, is something else entirely." Giles said. "You and the others are always welcome here."

Sam chuckled. "The thought's appreciated, but I better get going. We have a trip to go on tomorrow." Because while she knew about Kendra, the reverse was definitely not true, so 'talking around' was required on Sam's end.

"Good luck and have fun then, Sam." Jon called from the basement.

"See you lot around sometime." Sam called, and headed for the door.

Once she was gone, Giles turned back towards Kendra.

"There is something we would like to talk to you about, Kendra." He said. "We … all of us … would like you to stay with us."

Kendra frowned slightly, looking like she was having a time of it as regarded her training. 'Obey the Watcher' was Rule Number One for Council-raised and trained Slayers. Kendra's problem was that she now had two Watchers telling her things. Granted, Zabuto wasn't here at the moment, but the point remained.

"Why?" She finally asked.

"Because you came to within a minute or two of dying, even with our intervention. You would have died if we hadn't intervened." Giles said, then lifted a hand. "And yes, had you died, another Slayer would have been called."

Perhaps. There was no knowing for sure right now whether or not Kendra's death would call another Slayer, if that power still resided with Buffy or if they both could call another Slayer upon their deaths. Rather understandably, none of the Scoobies was in a hurry to find out what the deal was there.

"But that is a ridiculous waste. You are here, and we are willing to work with you, if you are willing to give our way a chance."

Kendra visibly thought that one over for a while. Giles left her to it for a bit, heading into the kitchen to help Joyce with dinner. A little before it was ready, the Scoobies came thundering up from the basement en masse.

"Hey! Kendra! You're looking a whole heck of a lot better." Jon greeted. "C'mon, dinner's almost ready. Trust me, you don't want to miss Joyce's cooking."

Kendra followed them into the kitchen. "Has Mr. Zabuto asked for me?" She asked.

"No." Giles said. "We've not seen him since before you were attacked." Unstated but understood was the fact that Zabuto could easily have checked with the Scoobies if he was worried about Kendra. His lack of checking in was … irksome … to say the least, to Giles.

Kendra frowned. Old training was more than slightly at war with new information and experiences. She had seen the care and concern Giles had for Buffy and the other teens. Her old training scoffed, called Buffy weak for needing such supervision, and Giles ineffectual as a Watcher for indulging her. Among other thoughts along similar lines.

And yet. For all she'd been raised from the cradle to expect a certain treatment, Kendra was still human. There was a part of her that saw the care and concern and envied it. Wanted it for herself.

"If .. if I were to remain, where would I stay?" Kendra asked after several long minutes and several forkfuls of delicious food.

"With me." Giles said. "Joyce is already housing Jon and Xander, and living with me would be something you are familiar with. But you would spend the bulk of your time here. As you know, our training, research, and post-battle cleanup facilities are all here, so we spend most of the evening from just after dinner until we head out here on weekdays, and the entirety of the weekends."

Kendra considered that. If she did decide to stay here with the group, living with Giles would, yes, be a spot of something familiar and reassuring in the midst of the madness. But the question still remained – did she want to stay?

Old training warred with new knowledge. Pros and cons got listed, and shifted around about a dozen times in her head. In the end though, what won was the one thing every human had, to greater or lesser degrees.

The drive to survive.

Doing it the Council way had almost seen her killed. Had, in point of fact, seen an uncountable number of her sister Slayers killed over the millennia. The possibility that doing it Giles' way would still see her dead existed. But she'd seen this group in action. She'd heard the story of how Buffy had survived a fight that otherwise would see her dead. Kendra had experienced a similar phenomenon herself. She might still end up dead, but … Kendra was willing to take the gamble that her death would be a bit longer in coming than it otherwise would have been.

"I think I will stay." Kendra told them finally.

Which announcement got triumphant whoops from the teens.

"Welcome to Team Scooby, Kendra. You won't regret it." Buffy said. "I know we have to come off as a little crazy, but … yeah. You won't regret it."

Kendra smiled a little. "I have already benefited." She admitted. "Though … Scooby? What is that?"

"Oh. Oh man. We're going to have to introduce you." Xander said. "Trying to explain it will definitely make you think we're nuts. So you're going to have to see it for yourself. But in brief, it's a reference to an animated TV show. You'll understand why we call ourselves that once you've seen some of the episodes."