Everything is quiet, Since you're not around,
And I live in the numbness now.
In the background.
I do the things we did before,
I walk Haight Street to the store,
And they say where's that crazy girl?
You don't get drunk on red wine, And light no more,
'Cause I don't see you anymore,
Since the hospital...

The smell of sickness dominated the air of Sunnydale's General Hospital.

Small groups of sick patients and their families huddled on the dusty waiting room seats outside the rooms, waiting for medical attention. And in the midst of all the commotion which looked like it was pulled directly out of ER, a lone brooding figure stood, pacing the hallways nervously.

From the looks of it, the frazzled looking gentlemen seemed to have been occupying the hospital corridors for a long while, pausing every now and then to stare worriedly at the small window in a small hospital room.

Inside the room lay a sleeping blonde girl, covered in bruises and cuts. Though her face and entire body was injured, she held an ethereal aura about her. The girl was somewhat a mystery to the hospital staff. Nobody seemed to know her name, since she was found amongst many dead bodies in a fire on the outskirts of Sunnydale. Nobody knew that she was once a vibrant energetic loved girl that risked her life for the world every night. Nobody knew that to her they owed their lives.

But the plans I make still have you in them,
Then you come swimming into view,
And I'm hanging on your words like I always used to do,
The words they use so lightly, I only feel for you,
I only know this cause I am, Way back down,
In the background.

As the days went by, her only visitor was the man that paid for all of her hospital fees, who stood consistently outside her room. During the visiting hours, he just sat beside her, holding her hand and stroking her hair. His eyes were bloodshot with tears. Tears of pain and regret. Though only roughly 20, his eyes betrayed loss beyond his years.

The man wasn't looking very well. He always stayed in the hospital, never leaving. Nobody had seen him eat at all, and his skin was as pale as the hospital robes. He was obviously getting thinner and weaker, his bones growing more visible each day, the tolls of his undying devotion showing. But he still never left her. Never again.

Words they come and memories all repeat,
I lift your head while, They change the hospital sheets,
I would never lie to you, No
I would never lie to you, No
I felt you long after we were through.

Then, one day, the man disappeared. The girl, after many weeks of being in a coma, died of a heart attack that morning. All the nurse heard was the man's pained scream, and when she came to see what was the matter, he was no longer in the room and only the lifeless body of the girl remained. On her body lay a single red rose tied to a silver Irish ring, a claddagh ring. Covered in dust.

Inside the ring was engraved, "To my beloved Buffy, Eternally Yours, Angel."

And the plans I make still have you in them,
Cause you come swimming into view,
And I'm hanging on your words like I always used to do,
The words they use so lightly, I only feel for you,
I only know this cause I am, Way back down,
In the background.

On that day, the life of the girl that was a mystery to the hospital staff ended, and the man who stood by her until her last breath, was never seen again

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