"This might hurt a little bit," Meredith said, lifting her hands and starting to peel the tape from around the bandages covering Xander's eye.
"It's ok," Xander said cheerfully. "I can handle a bit of hair pulling."
Meredith smiled faintly. "You're awfully cheerful today."
"Well," he replied. "I may have gotten my vision back, and so can stop looking like a pirate. Plus, no longer have that weird neuro thing, that Dr Shepherd fixed for me. I am trying to be optimistic about this whole thing."
"Good plan," she said, smiling again as she started to peel the bandages off. "Ok, now, slowly, start to open your eye."
Xander did as she asked, blinking a few times in the sudden light.
"How many fingers do I have up?" she asked, holding up all of them.
"All of them," Xander said, smiling a little.
"That's right!"
Xander
Xander sat up suddenly, shivering in the cold of the night. His room was lit by a dim lamp above his head and he could see the nurses station through his window.
But something just felt wrong.
He glanced at the clock and through his blurred vision, he could only just make out the time.
3:06.
A movement in the hall caught his eyes and he pushed the covers off his body, his feet cold as they touched the ground. He walked out into the hallway, but there was no one there. Not even at the nurses station.
But hadn't there been a few moments ago?
Xander shook his head, convinced he'd been having a particularly vivid daydream, and was about to turn back into his room when he saw the movement again.
A blurred figure was walking towards him, reaching out an arm.
He turned and looked behind him, squinting and straining his eyes to see the other figure.
"Hello?" he called.
The first figure stopped, beckoning to the one behind him, and Xander moved back a little, so as to let the other go past. His eyes watered and stung from the strain, but still he watched the first lead the second away.
And then, as if by magic, they faded away.