The Fallen Slayer {1}

A Thousand Little Cuts

"You should expect to see some bruising when you remove the bandages. Bruising around the..." Elena halted her words as she read Xander's chart and looked over at him, her eyes quickly zeroing in on the massive white bandage covering his left eye.

She could see it all over his face, he had no idea what to do anymore.

He was trying to hold it together but what had happened had shaken him up.

Despite living on the Hellmouth for years and fighting with The Slayer, Xander had never had an injury this permanent, something that was going to affect the rest of his life.

"Area." She finished a little unsure of what else to say in this situation. Slowly, she sat down on the edge of his bed continuing to read the chart. The hospital had given her a list of things to do while the stitches healed, including at least five different medications he was going to have to take for the next few months.

While she had gotten off lucky with just a broken arm and it was safe to say that so far, supernatural healing did not come with the ability of a banshee, she couldn't help but wish she was the one in that hospital bed instead of him.

"The bone structure and musculature were hit pretty hard."

 Xander merely took a shaky breath before nodding "Okay." He whispered before forcing a small smile on his lips, he hated that Elena looked ready to combust into tears "I keep waiting for my other sense to improve 50%. And they should kick in any day now."

Despite she knew the joke was for her benefit, Elena didn't laugh, she just wiped at the water filling her eyes before wrapping her good hand around his, entangling their fingers together "If it helps I talked to the Doctor. I can take you back to my place today."

Xander forced the smile back on his face at her words "Gonna take advantage of me?" He teased before frowning as he spotted her face change, that's when it clicked, the whole reason he had come here.

Elena had called him months ago and he had only just gotten the message.

"Anya told me you called yesterday...she forgot." He revealed causing her to let out a weak laugh and move to pull her hand back, but he didn't let her, he just tightened his grip around her palm, his thumb slowly grazing the skin, sending butterflies through Elena's body "Nothing happened, she was watching Spike. His chip has been acting up he was living in my closet."

That certaintly had Elena perplexed "Your closet?"

"Yep." Xander said with a small chuckle before he picked up the jello beside him "Now Nurse Elena...feed me the jello."

Elena arched her brow before rolling her eyes "I'll leave you here." She warned making him raise his hands in surrender before quickly yanking her to sit beside him on the small hospital bed. After months apart, he had no intention of letting her leave already "Nope. You have to stay. I have no depth perception remember. You know, I might need a parrot."

Elena sputtered and quickly tapped his head, did he have a concussion as well or something?

"Huh?"

"Well, to go with the eye patch. To really complete the look. I think I still have that costume from Halloween."

As his voice cracked, Elena finally started to let the tears fall, harsh uncontrollable sobs escaping her the longer she had to listen to him try to make light of the situation "I'm so sorry."

Not willing to let her do this, Xander cupped her beautiful face in his hands, forcing her brown eyes to focus on his blue ones "He was gonna kill you. Losing one eye isn't wholly bad. No more Jaws 3-D. See there's a good thing. But no Elena Gilbert? Can't see anything good about that."

Elena let out an amused breath before she lay down next to Xander, her head resting on his chest. Listening to his heartbeat the brunette couldn't help but sigh in relief, however, dread quickly filled her as she heard his next question.

"So wanna explain about Buffster the future Momager?"